The Inner Journey

Do your characters make a transition throughout your story or do they stay static or the same? A really good way to follow your character's inner journey is to start at the beginning. Well, duh, you say, that's obvious! But I'm going to give you seven pointers that will help you follow that inner journey.

1. Start by writing of you character's initial condition. What are his/her emotions? Define their starting place.
2. Decide what problem your character has. What will they have to face in their moment of truth. Fear of death? Is he/she afraid of water?
3. Examine your character's initial condition. How is your character expressing themself as the story begins. What problem is evident at the get go?
4. Next, look at the event that sends your character on their journey. What event causes your character to see her problem. For example; she is put in a rowboat, on a lake, and she has a terrible fear of water. (Lousy example, but you can use your own!)
5. Now see what happens in the story to escalate the situation. Does the oars drop out of the boat which has started leaking? Will your character want to go back to their original situation (be on land?) or will the be stripped of all ability to go back?
6. Now look at the moment of truth. Your character will be given a choice to either move on or stay the same. How they behave in the external shows how they react to this moment of truth. They have to make a decision. Will they sit in the leaky boat and scream? Or will they swim for it?
7. Examine how your character is at the end of their journey, or their final state. It could be that the fear our character experienced is now four times worse than it was, or it could be the exact opposite. Does your story have a happy ending? Bitter? Maybe she drowned in the lake. How is your character affected by their choices?

So you can see, a emotional journey was made by your character, an inner journey, that was followed by outside events. You can make this happen for your character in scenes, chapters or for a whole story. In any case, your character will have depth and the reader will be able to follow your character's journey.