by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethspanncraig.com
Characters who stumble through scenes without clear intentions leave readers feeling equally lost. When your protagonist just “goes with the flow” or reacts to whatever happens next, you’re missing opportunities to create tension and keep pages turning.
Give Characters Specific Goals in Every Scene
Before your character walks into a room, they should know what they want to accomplish there. Maybe your protagonist needs to extract information from a reluctant witness without seeming pushy, or your sleuth wants to search someone’s office while pretending to deliver cookies. The more specific the goal, the more interesting the obstacles become. “I need to find out if Mrs. Henderson was really home Tuesday night” works better than “I should talk to Mrs. Henderson.” Specific goals create specific problems when things don’t go according to plan.
Let Readers See the Mental Preparation
Show your character thinking through their approach before important conversations or investigations. This doesn’t mean lengthy internal monologues about strategy. Instead, give readers a quick glimpse of what your protagonist hopes will happen. Maybe they rehearse a casual question or decide to bring up a sensitive topic after dessert when everyone’s relaxed. When readers understand the game plan, they’ll notice immediately when circumstances force changes, creating natural tension.
Create Plans That Can Realistically Fail
The best character plans have built-in vulnerabilities that smart readers might spot. If your sleuth plans to question the suspect while they’re alone in the garden, readers will worry about safety. If they’re counting on someone being chatty after a few drinks, readers know alcohol can make people unpredictable instead of cooperative. Plans that depend on other people’s cooperation or perfect timing give you multiple ways to complicate scenes organically.
Show Characters Adapting When Plans Crumble
Real people adjust their approach when their first idea doesn’t work, and fictional characters should too. Maybe your protagonist planned to search a desk drawer but finds it locked, so they shift to examining family photos for clues instead. Or they intended to question someone privately but end up doing it in front of witnesses, changing their strategy completely. These moments of quick thinking reveal character traits while maintaining story momentum.
Use Failed Plans to Reveal Information
Sometimes the most interesting discoveries happen when plans go sideways. Your character might intend to eavesdrop on a private conversation but overhear something completely different and more important. Or their attempt to distract someone with small talk backfires when that person becomes suspicious and reveals their own secrets defensively. Plans that fail in unexpected ways often advance the mystery more effectively than plans that work perfectly.
What’s the most interesting way one of your character’s plans has gone wrong?
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