Unlock the Power of Character Agendas

Character Agenda - The Engine of Story

Every story you have ever loved began the same way. Not with a twist. Not with a setting. Not with a genre convention. With someone who wanted something. If you strip a narrative back to its bones - remove the atmosphere, the spectacle, the clever plotting - what remains is intention. A character with a goal. A belief about what will make them whole. A desire strong enough to risk something for. When that desire meets resistance, story begins. This course exists because too many writers build in the wrong order. They outline plots before understanding motivation. They design worlds before defining what their protagonist wants. They chase structure before clarifying intention. The result is drift. Scenes that feel disconnected. Conflict that feels manufactured. Endings that feel unearned. Character Agenda - The Engine of Story changes that. This is not a course about surface traits. It is not about eye color, hobbies, or charming quirks. It is about the driving force beneath the prose. It is about understanding what your characters want, why they want it, and how that desire shapes every structural beat of your narrative. We begin where story truly begins. You will learn how to define primary goals with precision rather than vagueness. Not “she wants happiness,” but “she wants to expose the truth before her brother is convicted.” Not “he wants love,” but “he wants to win back the one person who knows his secret.” You will discover how to test urgency and stakes so that desire feels compelling rather than decorative. You will explore the difference between surface goals and deeper emotional needs, and how the tension between the two creates psychological depth. From there, we move into backstory - not as indulgent biography, but as the soil from which agenda grows. You will examine how formative experiences shape belief, and how belief shapes pursuit. You will learn to craft backstories that clarify present motivation rather than clutter it. We then integrate agenda into structure. You will see how every major turning point - inciting incident, midpoint reversal, climax - is not an arbitrary event but a moment when desire collides with resistance. You will learn how to outline in terms of pursuit and consequence rather than mechanical sequence. Conflict becomes sharper when you understand opposing agendas. In this course, you will practice crafting scenarios where goals intersect and obstruct. You will examine how tension arises naturally when characters want incompatible outcomes, and how pacing intensifies as those agendas escalate. You will also explore character growth. Stories endure because people evolve. Or refuse to. You will map how agendas shift under pressure, how beliefs fracture, and how endings resonate when they reflect earned transformation. You will workshop resolutions that honour the journey of desire rather than simply conclude it. This course is rich with examples across genres. Literary fiction, thrillers, romance, fantasy, drama - you will see how agenda operates at every scale. You will analyze how well-rounded characters balance strengths and weaknesses, and how flaws are not cosmetic but consequential. Most importantly, you will practice. You will write agenda statements for your protagonists and antagonists. You will craft conflict scenes built on competing goals. You will revise your own outlines to ensure that every major event arises from pursuit. You will engage in peer discussions designed to sharpen clarity and credibility. By the end of the course, you will not look at story the same way again. You will no longer begin with “What happens?” You will begin with “Who wants what?” And that shift will change everything. Because when character agenda is clear, plot becomes inevitable. Conflict becomes organic. Growth becomes meaningful. Endings become resonant. If you are serious about writing fiction that holds together - that moves with purpose, that feels emotionally true, that sustains tension from first page to last - then mastering character agenda is not optional. It is foundational. This course gives you the framework, the exercises, the analysis, and the depth required to build stories that do not wander. Stories that drive forward with clarity and conviction. Stories powered not by gimmick, but by human desire under pressure. Character Agenda - The Engine of Story. Where narrative truly begins.