Plot Hole's last post focused on characters reacting to challenges and trauma. Let's turn our attention to the opposite situation: how your character reacts to achievements and good news.
Your character finally gets the big promotion at work. What's her idea of an appropriate celebration? What's the first thing that runs through her mind? How does she handle delivering the news within the office sphere? Outside it?
How does your character receive good news? Does he or she celebrate wholeheartedly, or is it always tempered by skepticism? Do they acknowledge their own successes? How?
This is just as important as how they deal with setbacks, rejections, and crises. Eventually, in many stories, characters get what they have been working for, and it's crucial to understand how they'll react. Does your character bask in the knowledge that he's slain the dragon, or does he focus on how many were eaten before he got there? Does she do a touchdown celebration throughout her office when she finds she gets the promotion without concern for the others who had hoped for it? Or does she keep the news to a few trusted friends?
In the long run, if you plan on having your characters' goals realized, you'll need to write how they deal with the realization that they've done it. In written fiction, it's difficult to write a character who just stands there while they receive a medal. The reader will want to know what's moving through their head, and it only benefits you to think about that before your audience has the opportunity to wonder.
All prompts on this blog are free for personal and instructional use, but may not be republished without the permission of the author.
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