Trials, Victories, and Consequences: Plotting your novel by character journey
October is hands down my favorite month of the year. It means Fall, pumpkin-flavored everything and my birthday, but also, it means prepping for NaNoWriMo.
I have been a constant participant of National Novel Writing Month ever since I took writing seriously. I love what participating does to my productivity, and the community around the event has been an excellent resource. As I plan this year's project, I thought it would be a good idea to share a couple of resources I used to get organized. What better way to start than with my novel-planning structure.
About the "Trials, Victories, and Consequences" Method
I am a big fan of the Hero's Journey as a plot structure. I grew obsessed with it when I first learned about it in college and read The Epic of Gilgamesh as an example of it. When I first started plotting my novels, I looked at the Hero's Journey for guidance. It helped me structure my stories from beginning to end, but I still wanted something that would show me character's motivations, the stakes they would face, and ultimately, their overall arch.
Borrowing from the Hero's Journey, I created the Trials, Victories, and Consequences structure to plan my novels. This method works better for character-focused stories. It divides the story into Trials, which are divided into stages that outline your character's Goals, Stakes, Victories, and the Consequences of their actions that will move the plot along.
Backstory: Motivations and Challenges
Start by writing a summary of your hero's backstory and list their motivations.
Who is your protagonist?
What do they most desperately want?
What are their challenges? Why can't they have what they want?
Trial 1: Call to Adventure
The first trial stage is where our story begins. Your hero will leave their old life behind and embark on a journey.
Call to adventure: The catalyst. What is the event that drives your character to leave their old life behind?
Goal: Your hero has a new goal and a plan to get what they want.
Stake: What are the obstacles? And what can go wrong if your hero pursues their goal
Victory: A minor victory for your hero. They've taken a small step towards getting what they want, but the road ahead is still long.
Consequence: For every high, there's a low. Your hero acted towards their goal and this results in a consequence that will push them to cross the threshold further into adventure.
Trial 2: Crossing the Threshold and Trials
There's no going back. Your hero is too far gone into adventure and too invested in their goals to go back to their old life.
Consequence turned new trial: Your hero has a new challenge ahead of them.
New Stake: With this new challenge, there's a new stake. What's at risk if they don't overcome this hurdle?
New Goal: Your hero has a new plan to overcome their current goal.
Victory: Another victory. Your hero has overcome their first trial, but their journey is still far from over.
Consequence: The last victory brings dire consequences, and things are looking grim.
Trial 3: Belly of the Beast & Resolution
The highest point of the story that will lead to resolution. Your hero recovers hope along the way and fight towards their goal and onto victory. They will return home being a different person.
Consequence turned into a new trial: Your hero is at their lowest point and everything appears lost.
New Goal: A glimmer of hope drives your hero to a new goal and a new plan to overcome all challenges. Your hero is braver or more capable than they were before. Their transformation begins.
Fight: The face-off with the antagonist. Your hero puts their plans into action and goes through with their transformation.
Victory: After the fight, the dust settles. Your hero has won and achieved their Trial 3 goals. Time to return home.
Resolution: Your hero returns home. They're not the same person they were at the beginning of the story. Their new persona settles back into their new life, and their goals from Trial 1 are not important anymore or have been achieved during their journey.
Now that we have gone through the basics of this method, let's look at Disney-Pixar's Coco as an example.
Example: Disney-Pixar's Coco
SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't seen the movie, go watch it before you read this example.
Coco. Theatrical release poster, Wikipedia, 2017.
Backstory: Motivations and Challenges
Miguel, a young boy in Mexico, wants to be a musician, but his family has a history of hating music. He has been learning to play the guitar in secret by watching the famous Ernesto de la Cruz's films and following along with a makeshift guitar, but is he any good? If he can prove that he's a talented musician, maybe his family will support his love for music.
Trial 1: Call to Adventure
Call to adventure: Miguel finds out about a concert that will take place in the town's square: the perfect opportunity to prove himself as a musician.
Goal: Take part at the town's concert.
Stake: His family cannot know that he'll be taking part.
Victory: Miguel concludes Ernesto de la Cruz is his great-great-grandfather. This means music is in his veins and he must be a talented musician. He tells his family and takes part in the concert.
Consequence: Miguel's grandmother destroys his makeshift guitar, leaving Miguel without an instrument to play at the concert.
Trial 2: Crossing the Threshold and Trials
Consequence turned new trial: Angry with his family, Miguel runs away from home. Without a guitar to play, he cannot take part in the festival's concert. He desperately tries to find a new guitar to play at the concert.
New Stake: While attempting to "borrow" De la Cruz's guitar to take part in the concert, Miguel's spirited away to the realm of the dead. He must return to the land of the living before dawn or else remain in the Land of the Dead. Only a blessing from his family will send him back. However, his great-great-grandmother will only send him back if he promises to never play music again.
New Goal: Miguel figures his great-grandmother isn't the only person who can send him home in the Land of the Dead. If he can go see De la Cruz and ask for his blessing, he can go back and still play music.
Victory: Miguel escapes his family and makes it to see De la Cruz with the help of Héctor and other support characters. De la Cruz agrees to send Miguel back home.
Consequence: After a confrontation between Héctor and De la Cruz, Miguel finds out his hero is not as noble as he thought he was. De la Cruz decides to not send Miguel back to the land of the living, fearing he might expose his murderous actions that led to his success. De la Cruz keeps Héctor's picture, and Miguel gets thrown into a cenote with Héctor. Time is running out for both Miguel and Héctor.
Trial 3: Belly of the Beast & Resolution
Consequence turned into a new trial: Miguel and Héctor figure out they’re related while trapped in the cenote. They get rescued by the rest of the family. They now must face De la Cruz.
New Goal: Recover Héctor's picture and send Miguel home before dawn.
Fight: The family comes face to face with De la Cruz and expose him to the Land of the Dead population. They lose Héctor's picture.
Victory: Miguel returns home and saves Héctor by helping his great-grandmother Coco remember him.
Resolution: Miguel and his family grow closer together, they accept music back into their lives, and expose the truth about Ernesto de la Cruz.
There are many ways to structure your novel, but this structure has proven to be the best for me because of its focus on the character’s journey. When it comes to character-focused stories, the best way to plot their journeys by keeping their goals and motivations in mind and how these will change throughout the story.