Eminent historical novelist and children’s writer Rosemary Sutcliff was praised for the richness of her language. Not for her the dead hand of the language of human resources, goals and quality improvement monitoring officers. So a description of a conference workshop which Google has alerted me to would not have commended itself to her.

She would of course have been delighted that people might be reading and talking about her historical novel The Eagle of the Ninth, and about children’s books more generally.   She often spoke or sent contributions  to conferences (her severe disability hindered her traveling) but I cannot imagine she herself would  ever have described Marcus, the hero of The Eagle of the Ninth,  as a “character with a goal” who eventually “scores”! And I was fortunate enough to grow up as a family member hearing her talk a good deal about her characters.

If your narrative stalls or flounders, perhaps your character does not have a goal. In this workshop, we will consider some examples of characters with goals. Examples might include … The Eagle of the Ninth …, a list that accommodates picture books and novels. Participants will be asked to write down their characters’ goals and share them with each other so that they and their characters will score.

Source here.