2023 Character-Building Challenge: Day 8
Make the most of March by participating in the first ever Character-Building Challenge. Writer’s Digest provides free daily tasks for the first 10 days of March to help writers unlock compelling new characters. For Day 8, reveal a character’s greatest want and hurdle.
For the eighth day of this challenge, pick a character and reveal their greatest want and the main hurdle standing in their way. For instance, a character may want a long-term relationship, but they're always falling in love with someone new. Or a character really wants to be a jet pilot, but they have vertigo.
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Here's my attempt at a sharing a character's greatest want and major hurdle:
Abraham really wants to do something great, like truly great. He wants to make a name for himself and be known as the best at something. However, he has one major hurdle standing in his way: He fears failure.
For instance, he great artist, but he won't enter the local art contest, because he's afraid of losing. As much as he wants the acclaim and respect of winning, he can't stand the thought of the negativity and ridicule that would come with losing.
Ever since he was young, he was called names like "Honest Abe," and it contributed to Abraham wanting to distinguish himself as someone who commands respect. But it's tough to make a mark when your greatest fear is falling short of the goal.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
