[Cirias]

I thought it would be interesting to get your thoughts on how you would tackle this: We join the character at the start of our story and they have just achieved their goal(s). Whether this is obtaining something they have always desired, defeating an adversary or something else. How would you consider tackling this as a writer, where you must write an entire story from the point where the character essentially has achieved their goal?

Here are a couple of my thoughts about this:

1) Characters, like real people, would be excited/happy at having achieved something major. I imagine some people would enjoy themselves to the fullest, some would simply settle down into a sort of retirement and others might display a range of other reactions, depending on the situation.

2) How do you inject a sense of purpose/excitement into a story featuring a character who thinks they are at the end of their journey?

3) Is this like a writer giving you their completed series of novels and saying: 'Alright, now you take it from here. But you must keep the main character!'

For instance, if the character has finally obtained a powerful object or position that they have sought after for years on end, what would they do next? It's essentially a backwards character, starting from their complete goal and either growing even more as a person or degenerating into something less wise, kind etc. Could this kind of reversal turn them into a morally wrong/'bad' character?

What do you all think?

[Fung Koo]

This is kinda the story after Happily Ever After.

I just got married this summer and I can tell you, the build up to the wedding seems like you're going to hit this moment where you're like "Ahh, it's finally over...!" But that sure isn't the whole story. As it turns out, life continues, and the climax of the story becomes one more blip in the long series of blips and bloops that is life.

A character who has just achieved their goal will, with some certainly, experience a change in circumstances. Tolkien touched on this when the Hobbits return to the Shire -- there's an after-story. In an adventure-style SFFH tale, after the villain is defeated (or whatever), the character will come home after having been away on their quest. Some things will have changed while they were away. Relationships may have altered due to the characters' absence. But by and large, life will have progressed as usual, with everyone else just going about their business. The reintroduction of that character to daily life will cause ripples, and there are stories in the ripples.

Like Bilbo returning to The Shire after The Hobbit, the Ring changing him in part but moreso his adventures having changed his perspective of the world, the story after the story gives rise to another story for your character. The Return.

The sense of purpose is suddenly absent. If your character had companions, they probably went separate ways. There is certainly alienation, sadness, restlessness, and/or ennui to consider in the story after the story.

Done well, I'm sure you could write a good story like this. I'm sure there are other examples out there, but other than Tolkien nothing is coming to mind right now.

I say give'r. :D

[Window Bar]

Do you remember the old Bonanza series on TV? The Cartwright clan (Ben, Adam, Hoss and Little Joe) have put together one of the grandest ranches in the old California/Nevada gold country. Sounds like a goal achieved, right?

Yes indeed. But ownership, power and responsibility become a new set of challenges; and Bonanza became one of the best-written, longest-running series of the Horse Opera era.

Look at Shakespeare's King Lear. Lear is nearing the end of a powerful life. Now the goal becomes something so minor (seemingly), so simple (except that it's not)... He craves the love of his daughters.

Go for it. We humans exist within time, and time creates stories.

-- WB

[Laer Carroll]

The end of every journey is the beginning of another.

Stories start and end with main characters in an equilibrium. Something happens which upsets that (happy or unhappy) balance. Protagonists decide to correct the situation. Maybe by working toward a positive, or to escape a negative. They make plans (as simple as Run! or as complex as a war strategy). They carry out that plan, overcoming or avoiding obstacles. Maybe changing the plan as their abilities and resources and understanding changes. Then they win or decisively fail.

But in life every equilibrium is upset eventually. A marriage is great (or not), and a child comes. Or one of the two dies, or just gets sick. Or one of the two graduates from college. Or ... The list is long.

So...

The end of every journey is the beginning of another.
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[Cononomous]

Patrick Rothfus just wrote The Name of The Wind and The Wise Man's Fear from this exact POV.

Have a read.

[hippokrene]

I thought it would be interesting to get your thoughts on how you would tackle this: We join the character at the start of our story and they have just achieved their goal(s). Whether this is obtaining something they have always desired, defeating an adversary or something else. How would you consider tackling this as a writer, where you must write an entire story from the point where the character essentially has achieved their goal?
I think that's a non-issue. Outside a very narrow range of fiction, it's not possible to spend an entire novel with a main character who as no goals. Likewise, unless they've just been born, very main character has achieved some of their previous goals.

1) Characters, like real people, would be excited/happy at having achieved something major. I imagine some people would enjoy themselves to the fullest, some would simply settle down into a sort of retirement and others might display a range of other reactions, depending on the situation.

"I want to enjoy myself to the fullest" is a goal.
"I want to settle down" is a goal.

[Laer Carroll]

"I want to enjoy myself to the fullest" is a goal.
"I want to settle down" is a goal.

And both offer all sorts of possibilities for stories which show main characters (and maybe some of their friends if the protagonist is a group) trying to do that.

Lots of sitcoms are based on the first goal.

All sorts of gunfighter-wants-to-retire stories have been based on the second.

[virangelus]

You could also come upon a character who achieved their goals and then fell out of harmony as to why they wanted these goals in the first place.

Iain M. Bank's "The Player of Games" features a character named Gurgeh who is considered the best overall at playing games, but has become utterly bored with his life. Therefore he seemingly convinces himself that he needs to call himself to a new adventure.

I have a character like that myself, who has conquered what they consider to be the "end all and be all" of their own personal mountains. They are the best at what they do, and to the them they've accomplished all that they need too until their call to adventure takes them far away from their alleged "status quo."

There are places you can definately take this. It's quite interesting to see wha thappens to people who have their goals taken away.

[Cirias]

Thanks for all your responses to this! As it turns out, I decided to inflict a major physical/emotional pain on my character, just as he obtains what he's always desired. Instead of making his achievement bittersweet, it has made it even greater, that he had to overcome suffering to reach it. Now, the story following on from this is him exploring the possibilities of his prize and overcoming the new challenges and problems that the previously mentioned pain has left him with. I guess he wasn't as deserving of the more favourable outcome I first imagined after all!

[Seeria]

Interesting thread. Reminds me of a line "he with the most toys wins" that my father and his buddies would often quote to each other. So what happens after you have all the toys?