Scene Goals + Defining your ideal readers

“How are scene goals different from story goals?”

“What if my protagonist doesn’t want anything?”

“Does my protagonist really need a goal in every scene?”

These are really good questions, and I’m going to answer all of them in this post 💛

Q: “How are scene goals different from story goals?” 🤔

A: First, let’s talk about scene goals for a second… And really, to talk about scene goals, we need to talk about story goals.

What is a story goal?

A story goal is the big picture, overarching thing that your protagonist wants to get, accomplish, or achieve.

For example, they might want to solve a mystery, avoid falling in love, save a victim, gain redemption, or win a competition.

Those are big goals that will take time to accomplish, right?

This is where scene goals come in…

What are scene goals?

In each scene, your point of view character also needs to want to get, accomplish, or achieve something–and whatever they want to get, accomplish, or achieve must make sense in the context of their story goal.

For example, if you’re writing a crime story where the detective wants to figure out whodunnit, one of their scene goals might be to interview a suspect. Another scene goal could be to visit the body at the morgue.

In other words, each scene goal needs to be an attempted step toward your protagonist accomplishing their scene goal.

If it’s not, your story will start to break down and readers will lose interest.

Using our detective story as an example, imagine if there was a scene where the detective wanted to win a round of mini-golf and they were confronted by a bully from highschool. A scene like this might include action–punches thrown, maybe a car chase, or a race down a dark alleyway, but it wouldn’t really matter…

Even if you had a plausible reason for including this scene–for example, to introduce the highschool bully to explain your protagonist’s backstory–it’s still not going to be as impactful as it could be because it has nothing to do with the overarching story.

However, you could make a slight tweak to the above scene and say that the detective’s goal is to enter a mini-golf competition so that he can spy on a group of suspects, then that would go a long way towards moving the main story along.

See the difference?

Q: “What if my protagonist doesn’t want anything?” 🤔

A: They do, I promise! You just need to think outside the box. For example, a character might want to avoid someone or something, or they might want to maintain their current circumstances or situation. If a character wants to stay inside to avoid their neighbors (let’s say they just got a facial and their face is bright red), that’s their goal.

The conflict must then make it very difficult to achieve or maintain that goal–for example, a neighbor in crisis knocks on the door and needs help. Because of that, your character must go outside their apartment to help, and maybe there’s a crowd of people gathered–and so on and so on.

Q: “Does my protagonist really need a goal in every scene?” 🤔

A: YES! For the reasons I mentioned above. Scene goals and story goals provide context for everything else that happens in a story. They also give readers insight into who your character is and what they care about. Without scene goals (or story goals), you’ll end up with a character who has no agency (boring), and a bunch of pages that aren’t really about anything (also boring).

So, I hope that helps clear up some of the confusion!

BONUS: How to define your target audience (Ideal Readers)

Defining your target audience is much easier said than done.

Many writers end up skipping this step because they fail to recognize its importance in their book marketing plans.

The truth is, identifying and understanding the wants, needs, and desires of your ideal readership can "make or break" your marketing strategy.

Without a solid grasp of what makes your readers tick – and what they are really searching for – you will waste a considerable amount of time and energy promoting your work to an indifferent market.

Or worse, you'll begin to receive pushback or negative reviews from people that your book was never written for in the first place.

But here's the good news...

There is a wealth of information at your fingertips, about every audience and sub-genre imaginable.

From basic demographics like age, gender, location, income, occupation or ethnicity, to audience psychographics, like personality, attitudes, values, interests, hobbies, lifestyle, and even behaviour.

The problem?

Writers are making some significant mistakes when targeting their ideal audience, so let's address a few of them (and what you can do about it):

Are You Making These Mistakes?

(IF SO, LET'S FIX THAT!)

1. You assume you already know your target audience and employ a “one-size-fits-all” approach to your marketing strategy.

Action Step: Don’t guess! Do your research and make sure that you are targeting the right audience, and that you understand that audience fully.

2. You have no clue as to who your ideal readers are, the pain they are experiencing, or the needs that they are searching to fill.

Action Step: Take the time to determine exactly who you are trying to reach and uncover their most pressing issue, desire, or problem (so that you can be in a position to solve it).

3. You take a random, haphazard approach as opposed to getting specific about who you are here to help.

Action Step: Save time by clearly identifying and getting to know your target audience, and stop trying to do a little of everything (without analyzing the results).

4. You don’t have a clear message that really connects with your target audience about what they’re looking for (or why YOU are the one to provide it).

Action Step: Ensure that the messages you share and the content you create not only addresses your readers’ needs and desires, but shows how you (and your work) are the “solution”.

5. You become completely overwhelmed when trying to identify all the relevant characteristics of your target audience (or have no idea where to start).

Action Step: Start simple. Who would you like your community to be comprised of? Look at those who’ve already had positive experiences with your work. Who is reaching your ideal audience already, and how are they meeting their readers’ needs?

6. Missing the mark and choosing the wrong audience to target.

Action Step: Look inward. What can you bring to the table? Choose an audience whose needs you can meet.

7. Thinking of your target audience as a 'group' (or well, an 'audience'), when really you’re trying to identify just ONE person.

Action Step: Create a detailed reader profile. Having a specific, “real” person in mind makes connecting and engaging a whole lot easier!

So what mistakes are you making, or where are you getting stuck when it comes to reaching and engaging with your ideal readers?