How to Write a Character Driven Story -

Identify what your characters want, their motivation and emotional change in the story.  Characters come to life from a guide chart, on their past and individuality for consistent story flow.  Fit the characters fears, drives and goals to the difficulty or obstacle in their path.  Does the character perceive things the way everyone in general might?  What affects the character for change?  How does the character change?  What triggers the driven character and to what form of action?  Would the character be asked, “Is that you?”  “Is that really you?”  What makes the character interesting in the description?  With a clear objective and growth the character solves the problem that readers may share in.  Character driven focuses on growth by showing internal change and its influences, to develop the plot and story.  Show unique actions a dramatic character takes to overcome problems, danger on a path to attain the goal.  Place inner tension conflict to develop layering situations that raise the stakes to take action.  Scenes for your story are created by actions dealing with encounters, event or problem consequences.  A story ending has emphases on maximum unpredictable stakes.  Conflict has been resolved at the story ending.

Character driven novels:

M. L. Stedman’ The Light Between Oceans, 1926. Tom Sherbourne is a young lighthouse keeper on a remote island off Western Australia. The only inhabitants of Janus Rock, he and his wife Isabel live a quiet life, cocooned from the rest of the world.  Then one April morning a boat washes ashore carrying a dead man and a crying infant - and the path of the couple's lives hits an unthinkable crossroads.  Only years later do they discover the devastating consequences of the decision they made that day - as the baby's real story unfolds ...

Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name Of The Wind, so begins the tale of Kvothe—from his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, to years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-riddled city, to his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a difficult and dangerous school of magic. In these pages you will come to know Kvothe as a notorious magician, an accomplished thief, a masterful musician, and an infamous assassin. But The Name of the Wind is so much more—for the story it tells reveals the truth behind Kvothe's legend.

Colum McCann’ TransAtlantic, these three iconic crossings are connected by a series of remarkable women whose personal stories are caught up in the swells of history. Beginning with Irish housemaid Lily Duggan, who crosses paths with Frederick Douglass, the novel follows her daughter and granddaughter, Emily and Lottie, and culminates in the present-day story of Hannah Carson, in whom all the hopes and failures of previous generations live on. From the loughs of Ireland to the flatlands of Missouri and the windswept coast of Newfoundland, their journeys mirror the progress and shape of history. They each learn that even the most unassuming moments of grace have a way of rippling through time, space and memory.

Charlotte Brontë’ Jane Eyre, one of the greatest and most perennially popular works of English fiction. Although the poor but plucky heroine is outwardly of plain appearance, she possesses an indomitable spirit, a sharp wit and great courage. She is forced to battle against the exigencies of a cruel guardian, a harsh employer and a rigid social order. All of which circumscribe her life and position when she becomes governess to the daughter of the mysterious, sardonic and attractive Mr. Rochester. However, there is great kindness and warmth in this epic love story, which is set against the magnificent backdrop of the Yorkshire moors.