Ordering and pacing a story in which the protagonists lack a goal

[Feo Takahari]

I usually build a story around characters' attempts to resolve a problem. However, in my current story, the protagonists don't clearly understand their own problems, and don't make an attempt to resolve things until the very end--they spend most of their time talking and thinking about their pasts. (Think a fantasy Waiting for Godot.) Anyways, this is giving me significant difficulty in determining how to organize and pace events--I know where I'm beginning and where I'm ending, but the middle could be whatever appropriately sets up the change in mindset that results in the end. Does anyone have any tips or tricks for handling this?

Brief plot summary, in case it affects things: a group of heroes have spent many years fighting any and all threats to their kingdom's security. They've just killed the last threat big enough to require their intervention, but they're too traumatized and alienated to reintegrate into society, so they spend several months (up to a year) waiting around in their communal home and trying to stave off boredom. In the end, a messenger comes to them to request help with a new threat, and they throw their weapons out a window and tell him to find someone else to save the kingdom. (I'm hoping to cover all this at short-story length rather than novel or novella length, skipping over large periods of time.)

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

I don't see how there is a story that has characters without goals. Even in the scenario you detailed above there is a goal... namely these characters are holed up somewhere for a reason. Are they alienating themselves from society because they can't reintegrate? Have they chosen isolation over celebrity?

Each character must have a reason for being there...for choosing to live in this location. Within their reasons for being there, you will find the goals. This may be a group goal, individual goals, or a mix of the two. No matter how you slice it, there are underlying motivations for all choices characters make. Look to what motivated them to sequester themselves away from the rest of the world. Have them face difficulties in maintaining and justifying that isolation. There are many possibilities that could crop up to interfere, boucing the readr from their pasts to the current time and back again.

A story that could capture those reasons, ending in the refusal of further service could be quite interesting if handled properly.

 

[Chilari]

I also can't see something like this really working too well, even as a short. The "core conflict" doesn't appear until right at the end. The rest lacks conflict and direction. You know what decision you want your characters to make, but you need to work out a scenario which gives them the chance to re-evaluate their lives while also being part of the core conflict. Sitting on their rear ends trying to stave off boredem, and remembering the past, isn't going to be interesting. Perhaps you could better illustrate the conflict by putting them in the situation you describe - showing how they struggle to integrate with normal society, and contrasting this with the option to return to their previous lifestyle and go on an adventure or seek work. An isolated house away from society doesn't give you the chance to demonstrate their options and the conflict, all it does is show what decision they have made (leave society) and what led to that decision (their memories of times past). All the conflict is thus in the past, it's practically resolved already aside from this messenger coming along and asking them to help again.

Putting them within society also gives you the option for them to discover this threat before the messenger comes along, and discuss or consider what they'd do if a messenger did come asking for help. So you've got these characters, unhappy where they are because they're not integrating with society, scarred both physically and emotionally by their wartime experiences, trying to decide what to do with the rest of their lives - go back to war, where at least they know what they're doing and have a certain degree of acceptance, or stay where they are and leave the horror, pain and loss of war behind. And it is only later that they decide, no, there's a third option: an isolated house, working the land and avoiding both society and war.

 

[wordwalker]

To expand on T.A.S., I think if you see this story as goalless, it's hopeless. What you seem to be talking about is people left with unformed, uncertain goals about understanding what they've been through, that they slowly sort out into particular issues and resolve them into that final decision.

To me, a story or scene with no goal can never have any momentum (or at best, even if interesting things happen they'll still bounce around without direction). But anything works as a goal if you give it the right pieces, and writing the quieter moments is just about finding what the goal is and "putting the magnifying glass" on what it needs. If a chapter is just a guy at work one morning, there's a difference between "he's a bit tired, but the friends he meets keep his spirits up" and "the simple fun of being good at what he does;" you just pick a focus and work within that, until it's time for the next focus.

(Even Godot is still made up of particular arguments and expectations. More or less.)

So, work with the specifics your characters are dealing with, or maybe certain moments that bring things to mind. Maybe the sound of geese has an MC glowering around all day because it reminds him of one battle; someone might be stricken with guilt or never been able to admit how he let a friend down, or have a son he can't talk to because they've grown so far apart. Especially, since you're talking about regrets, how many of these problems turn out to be insolvable things already done that they can only try to face-- though some issues may push someone to some dramatic action just to capture his frustration.

Maybe, like Chilari said, get them into earshot of the town sometimes, if only to have more variety in what sets them off (do these people seem like they deserve the sacrifices the MCs made?) and who gets involved in the process. You've got a theater play in mind, but do you really admire plays doing everything with small casts or can you still find a use for the "budget" they do without?

Just pick the focuses.

 

[Steerpike]

I think there is potential here for conflict, throughout. If you recognize that and work with it, this could be a good story. Otherwise, I don't think it works well. It seems to me a lot of the conflict will be internal. You start with characters who have been willing to fight for the kingdom. But the end, as a result of internal conflict, dialogue with other characters, &c., they are no longer willing to do so. That's transformation, and the conflict lies in getting from point A to point B as people.

 

[wordwalker]

--Except, looks like we're all talking past what you actually asked.

Ways to pace and order your points? Hard to say, since we don't know what they are. Maybe:

Put them in order of emotion intensity: the smaller guilts and regrets first, that clear the way for the larger ones-- but probably mix in some larger points early (you still need a strong page 1!) and some lesser things to pace the climax.

Or in order of beliefs: if half the points say that what they did was worth it and half say it isn't, does one half come first and slowly give way to the other, or how are they mixed together? And there's probably more than one dimension to sorting this.

EDIT: Or plausibility: which thing's most likely to bring which out in reaction to it? (Though this one is tricky if half the moments take place in different months.)

Or what physical actions people take; if only some moments seem like they'd push someone to brawl or risk their lives rebuilding stone walls in the rain, be sure you're punctuating the right points in the arc.

Or, by variety of whose big moment it is.

 

[Feo Takahari]

The suggestion to make the conflict more clear implies another possible approach--maybe I can order events by how much they conflict with the characters' current way of life. (For instance, one character wants to see her family, but is afraid that anyone intending to attack her might harm them instead. I intended to simply have her make and retract the suggestion, but maybe I should have it come up repeatedly, and have her actually attempt to leave the mansion towards the end of the story.)

P.S. To be clear on what I don't want to do: I considered a version of the story in which one of the heroes, unable to handle no longer having a villain, attempts to become a villain, and the others try to stop her. This is a plot arc that I've seen done well, but I'd prefer that this particular story not end with any grand battle or heroic struggle.

 

[The Unseemly]

Well, how about a goal of having your characters discover what their problems are by discussing their past? That would make everything just so much simpler.

 

[Feo Takahari]

Well, how about a goal of having your characters discover what their problems are by discussing their past? That would make everything just so much simpler.

I didn't think of it in those terms, but that'll make the viewpoint character's role much better-defined. I've already set up that her primary concern is taking care of the others' physical and mental health, so I can probably push her towards actively analyzing her friends' problems.

 

[Alex97]

Perhaps the story could start with them all in the home recalling their pasts etc... Later they could all leave in search of some meaning in their lives which pretty much gives you limitless options. Maybe some characters find something whilst others do not. The messenger can go to all of them at the end leaving them with the decision about whether to face the threat.

That's just one idea anyway.

 

[Helen]

I usually build a story around characters' attempts to resolve a problem. However, in my current story, the protagonists don't clearly understand their own problems, and don't make an attempt to resolve things until the very end--they spend most of their time talking and thinking about their pasts. (Think a fantasy Waiting for Godot.) Anyways, this is giving me significant difficulty in determining how to organize and pace events--I know where I'm beginning and where I'm ending, but the middle could be whatever appropriately sets up the change in mindset that results in the end. Does anyone have any tips or tricks for handling this?

Brief plot summary, in case it affects things: a group of heroes have spent many years fighting any and all threats to their kingdom's security. They've just killed the last threat big enough to require their intervention, but they're too traumatized and alienated to reintegrate into society, so they spend several months (up to a year) waiting around in their communal home and trying to stave off boredom. In the end, a messenger comes to them to request help with a new threat, and they throw their weapons out a window and tell him to find someone else to save the kingdom. (I'm hoping to cover all this at short-story length rather than novel or novella length, skipping over large periods of time.)

Looks like their final decision is your goal.

You can have mini, seemingly inconsequential targets to reach along the way. Their purpose is to move the characters forward in terms of their decision.

The goal doesn't have to be grabbing treasure from under Smaug's nose. That's superficial.