The secret of writing characters: AGENDA

This hit me as an epifone the other day. all your characters in a scene have to have an agenda. and of course agendas can change. but you keep track of the agenda of all of your characters and dialogue flows so much better.

i would even say that the WEATHER and locations have an agenda and behave accordingly. like the vines covering an abandoned nuthouse and the fog rolling it to sabotage your hunt for the girl with the piggy tales.
or a house like in The Shining

 

byt, it's 'epiphany'... but i do like the look of your 'epifone'!

 

Well, writing is an artificial reflection of life. Every communication has some agenda behind it, however intense or trivial, including this one.

 

Hi, welcome to the forum.

Yes, your characters and the things they do should serve to move the plot forward. Having an agenda is related to having conflict. An agenda serves to develop your characters. You would seem to be on the right track.

 

Or Epiphone, which is a brand of guitar.

 

Solid realization, colleague. Indeed, it's when two characters have the same end goal but different agenda, or any mix of the goal/agenda plug, that conflict and drama arises.

 

Yes, I do know that. It was a play on the alternate spelling.