Welcome to 40 Days of 3 Questions!
For the next few weeks, meet here every morning with a notebook or document to answer three questions about writing, about your status quo as a writer, or about the writing life. You can answer briefly and go about your day, or you can use this as a warm up exercise before your regular writing schedule. Whatever works for you, works for me.
Day 7 Questions
- In your current project, how is your protagonist tested?
- Is this challenge internal, external, or both?
- Will this test leaving a lasting mark on the character when the drama is over?
You may post answers in comments or keep your thoughts private–your choice!
And here is today’s pretty picture:
Ramona DeFelice Long 
Since I’m currently in Trying-to-Figure-Out-What-My-Next-Story-Is-About Mode, I don’t have answers to these, but I’m writing them down to ponder as I try to figure out what my next story is about.
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So far she’s having a major internal test, but she might be tested externally, too. It will leave a mark on her.
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Thank you for these morning questions, they have certainly inspired me. My protagonist is most certainly tested as she struggles to learn how important it is to have faith in yourself. Without challenges, there’s very little story.
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He is tested both internally and externally as he struggles for independence. What happens changes him forever.
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1.) In your current project, how is your protagonist tested? She’s discovered that everyone has secrets — even those closest to you.
2.) Is this challenge internal, external, or both? Both
3.) Will this test leaving a lasting mark on the character when the drama is over? She will know that our public personality is like an iceberg – on 10% is visible.
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In your current project, how is your protagonist tested? An ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances. She has to constantly fight with her love for a student and trust the plan he mostly concocted to impress his father. She is unsure but desperately in love with him. He’s her first everything.
Is this challenge internal, external, or both? She’s used to physical challenges and he knows that, so he places her in physical danger. Her internal is learning how to trust love when so many of the emotions are counter intuitive and disquieting. The story takes place on the island of Guadalcanal during the early portion of WWll.
Will this test leaving a lasting mark on the character when the drama is over? yes, she will make peace with it sixty years later.
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Once again, I’ll answer in the context of my historical, which is more “on-going.”
In your current project, how is your protagonist tested? She must solve a. mystery – two of them, actually, which carries their own challenges. But she is also redefining her role as a young woman in society.
Is this challenge internal, external, or both? Both.
Will this test leaving a lasting mark on the character when the drama is over? I sure hope so!
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Great thought provoking questions. Thanks, Ramona
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Interesting questions, Ramona!
In my first of three novels, my protagonist finds her courage, nerve, and ingenuity tested.
Her investigations cause conflicts with friends and family. Some want to her to investigate; some think she is a mere meddler. At times she is torn by doubt and self-blame.
At the end of novel one, she has become more confident of her abilities. In the second novel, she moves more quickly and confidently into the investigative mode. By the third manuscript, she starts out as an investigative reporter on a murderous assignment.
I didn’t plan this progression originally. It sort of just happened.
Evelyn
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Way late with this. It was a long, involved day. As I wrote out these answers, I realized they could be used to make a good cover blurb. Thanks, Ramona!
***In your current project, how is your protagonist tested?
In the course of defending her father from a murder charge, she finds out things in his past that are hard for her to accept.
***Is this challenge internal, external, or both?
Both, of course. That’s what we’re supposed to do, right?
***Will this test leaving a lasting mark on the character when the drama is over?
It had better. She should end up with a better understanding of who both her parents are and an appreciation for what they’ve gone through.
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In your current project, how is your protagonist tested? Her son is suspected of murder.
Is this challenge internal, external, or both? Both, I think.
Will this test leaving a lasting mark on the character when the drama is over? Yes
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How is character tested? He has to fight a battle he’d prefer not to fight.
Internal or external test? Both
A lasting mark? It will change the way he sees himself and set him on a different path through adulthood.
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