If you've followed suggestions in the earlier chapters, you should now have a main character(s) who a.) wants something that you expect it will take them until the climax of the book to attain. (Or to realize they don't want after all, or to totally lose if you're writing more of a tragedy.)

And b.) May have an ITCH THEY CAN'T SCRATCH - See chapter 4.

But how can you make your main character unique? How can you ensure you're not falling back on traits or plot points you've seen other writers use, rather than allowing your character to make their own decisions? If you have an active character that drives the story (which is what most readers and agents and editors are looking for) then your character's decisions are everything. They are what makes her confront the boy and tell him she saw him with another girl, or ignore him and stop answering his telephone calls. They're what makes him step in and fight the bullies of a guy he doesn't even know, or find a teacher, or call the police, or walk away and try not to think about it, or join in and help the bullies. The decisions your character makes form the backbone of your character and subsequently your plot. Katniss Everdeen decides to volunteer and take her sister's place in the Hunger Games. Her decision reveals who she really is: She is a girl willing to sacrifice her life to protect someone she loves, and she is courageous. Without this we wouldn't have a story.

There are two basic parts to your character's decision making process:

Part 1: The Barrier - This is whatever is getting in your character's way; what is stopping them from achieving their goal?

Part 2: The Decision of how to get around The Barrier. (Including, the character's indecision/ hesitation.)

PART 1: We have to understand all aspects of The Barrier from the point of view of the main character. The better we understand how difficult it is for the character to overcome the barrier or problem they're facing, i.e. what they stand to lose, the more invested we'll become in the character's decision.

For example: In the very first paragraph of Book 1 of The Hunger Games, we learn that the 'Day of the Reaping' is enough to give Katniss' sister bad dreams. Throughout the next few pages as Katniss meets Gale in the woods, the Hunger Games, and the threat of the reaping lurk beneath everything. They are referred to implicitly and explicitly; in the empty village streets; Katniss and Gale's feast in the forest; Gale's suggestion they should run away; their bargaining at the pit; and even the clothes people are wearing. We learn how Katniss fears the reaping and loathes the Hunger Games. We learn that the Games are a fight to the death with only one victor remaining. They are brutal and gruesome and from Katniss' own perspective, being picked would be a death sentence.

Simultaneously, we learn the lengths Katniss has gone to, to protect her younger sister. She isn't worried about her sister in the reaping because she has forbidden Primrose to increase her ballots in the game in exchange for food (unlike Katniss herself.)

Collins takes her time ensuring that we understand the implications of the reaping and the Hunger Games, as well as Katniss and her life, before the scene of the reaping. Then, she doesn't just throw Katniss into the worst situation possible by having her name picked from the ball of names, she turns Katniss into an active protagonist. The name that is picked is Primrose Everdeen. Katniss has about thirty seconds to make a decision that is for herself, a death sentence. And it is this decision that makes us invest so heavily in her character. It's the decision to take her sister's place that makes us love Katniss, despite her faults.

PART 2:

The clearer the mental twists and turns your main character goes through in coming to a decision, the better we (the reader) will understand them. And the better we understand a character, the more we're going to 'believe' in them as a 'real' person. We like to know what's going on inside their head.

Here is the moment Primrose's name is called out at the reaping.

Effie Trinket crosses back to the podium, smoothes the slip of paper, and reads out the name in a clear voice. And it's not me.

It's Primrose Everdeen.

*** CHAPTER 2 ***

One time, when I was in a hide in a tree, waiting motionless for game to wander by, I dozed off and fell three meters to the ground, landing on my back. It was as if the impact had knocked every wisp of air from my lungs, and I lay there struggling to inhale, to exhale, to do anything.

That's how I feel now, trying to remember how to breathe, unable to speak, totally stunned as the name bounces around the inside of my skull.

There's another half page of Katniss reacting internally, coming to grips with the shock of her sister being picked, before she actually does anything. It's only when she's watching her sister walk stiffly up to the stage that she finally comes back to herself:

'...and I see the back of her blouse has become untucked and hangs out over her skirt. It's this detail, the untucked blouse forming a duck's tail, that brings me back to myself.'

This is the moment where Katniss flies into action, pushing through the crowd to get to her sister. Only once Katniss has physically stopped Primrose from mounting the stage and pushed her sister behind her, does she say, "I volunteer!"

Suzanne Collins doesn't simply have Katniss tell us, 'I was shocked.' She takes us through the intricate internal and external moments of Katniss' shock. The memory she has of falling from a tree and not being able to breathe. Someone gripping her arm, because maybe she's started to fall. Her disbelief: 'This can't be happening. Prim was one slip of paper in thousands!... Hadn't I done everything? Taken the tesserae, refused to let her do the same?'

There is a whole page of Katniss overcoming her shock to make the only decision she can - her life, for her sister's - before Katniss springs into action. If Katniss has volunteered without any kind of hesitation, the reader would not have become as emotionally wrapped up in the scene.

I'm going to go into this decision making process in more detail in a later chapter on Internal Monologue. But for now, I'd just like to say I think it is because of how important this internal process is, that intricately plotting every scene of your novel before you start writing can sometimes create the feeling we have as a reader that a character is 'just doing something' because the author needed her to end up meeting 'X', or discovering the jewels, or being outside the gym at that moment.

As a reader we can lose belief in the story if we feel the author has used the character to advance the plot the way they wanted it.

There are writers, notably Stephen King, who speak out strongly against plotting. I wouldn't go this far. I'm not saying don't plot your story before you write the first draft. If you haven't already written a couple of novels, outlining the basic plot points is probably necessary to ensure the structure of your book can carry your story. But once you're inside a scene, writing it, and your character is reacting differently to the way you thought they would, I would suggest following your character. You can start over and rewrite the scene if you don't like the result. (For me, one of the most exciting things as a writer, is finding the main character doing things you never thought of beforehand.)

In an interview with Scholastic, Suzanne Collins was asked whether she completely mapped out her plot or worked from a general idea when writing The Hunger Games trilogy. She answered:

"I've learned it helps me to work out the key structural points before I begin a story. The inciting incident, acts, breaks, mid-story reversal, crisis, climax, those sorts of things. I'll know a lot of what fills the spaces between them as well, but I leave some uncharted room for the characters to develop. And if a door opens along the way, and I'm intrigued by where it leads, I'll definitely go through it."

You can read that interview here: http://www.scholastic.com/thehungergames/media/suzanne_collins_q_and_a.pdf

Some successful authors plot in detail, some refuse to plot at all and some do a bit of both. I think it's worth trying out different strategies to see what works best for you. Whatever you choose, my first technique for building a believable character when you are writing the actual scenes of your story, is to make sure your reader fully understands the barrier(s) between the character and their goal (from your character's perspective). And secondly to show your reader the character's thought process as he decides how he's going to surmount this barrier.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this, so please feel free to comment (and vote if you've found it helpful!) Thanks!