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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43576
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Yes, Main Character may (and probably does) want more than one thing in her life.

## What Is A Story?

However, what you're really banging up against here is the ultimate question of, what is a story?

# Is Story Everything That Happens To A Character?

You are telling a story that is a portion of a character's entire life. You are doing this so you don't bore your readers into a coma.

# It's A Snapshot

Instead, story is a snapshot of the thing that is **very important** to the character **at the time of the story**. Otherwise you are simply journaling everything that happens to the character and that is boring.

Of course, there are nuances of character and interesting things that the writer adds to the story in measured ways and that is what makes the story compelling and interesting.

## Who's To Say The Novel Should Only Be About One Particular Thing?

Take this idea and stretch it a bit. You are asking if limiting elements about the character really serve the character.

However, what if you did that with your novel and said, "Well, should this novel really be about the captain of a ship that is bent on killing a white whale?\*"

Maybe the story should include the captain hunting down a huge shark that is terrorizing the town of Amity+?

And while we're at it maybe we should make it about a young boy who is recruited into a fight with the Galactic Empire by an old Jedi knight++.

Plus, it could include a mystery on a train that is bound for the Orient+++.

# Limits Are Good

Limiting the character and what we tell about the character is for the reader.

It is the same with the story. We tell one story about a moment in the main character's life.

+ Jaws

++ Star Wars

+++ Murder on the Orient Express

Original score: 3