Discovering who belongs

Cooper North and I have had an interesting week.

You see, the first thing an author decides is the book’s premise or promise. Then they develop a storyline for it. And they find the characters who act out both of those.

Getting the cast right is critical to telling the story well. From who they are and what their names are, to how they appear and what backstory they bring to the storyline — all of it.

In our last conversation, we talked about shifts and twists in that story. But what I’ve been spending time with this past week is that characters can surprise us as much as shifts in the storyline. In fact, sometimes it is the character who shifts the story, rather than the story creating a need for the character.

I heard some interviews lately where movies were being cast, and they just couldn’t find the right person for a part. In some cases, the movies nearly didn’t get made because they couldn’t find the right person, and the movies couldn’t move forward without them.

One of those was a story about Ed Norton when he was just starting out. Richard Gere was giving the interview and talking about the movie Primal Fear. They had been through dozens of auditions for a particular part, but they were still searching. The movie almost got squashed until Ed Norton showed up. He was a complete unknown. And he was the person they had been waiting for.

We think in terms of the movie making his career, but the flip side of that is that he made the movie. I’ve never seen the movie — this is just an example of something that happens more often than we realize. In the movies, in books, in life, and in business.

When I first started writing about Cooper North and The Possibility Factor, I was extracting and even testing out potential lessons for the parable. But lately, I’m finding that the process of making the book is an even more effective lens for understanding how ideas come to life.

You see, being the star of a movie or the main character of a book is not the same as a one-person show.

Which is what I kept coming back to when thinking beyond Cooper himself to the bigger story.

Who are the people without whom the story cannot exist?

Every business has them.
Every movement has them.
Every life has them.

Sometimes they arrive because you planned them from the beginning, but sometimes they arrive because the work itself called for them.

I’ve been an avid reader of good fiction since I was a young girl. I still remember the librarian at the library across from my piano teacher’s house — where I used to hang out until my lesson time — asking me what I liked to read. I didn’t actually know. I just knew I enjoyed reading. Even the back of cereal boxes. And she introduced me to my first fiction author and chapter books.

All this time, I believed something that, now that I’m writing fiction myself, I know isn’t exactly true. I always just assumed that authors invented fully formed characters. But the truth is often the opposite.

Sometimes a character walks into a story out of nowhere, and suddenly everything begins making sense in a whole new way.

I experienced this first with Shirley and then Ellis. Then young Micah showed up, and it changed the ending. Now, Michael Harper’s appearance is about to add just what was missing at the core of the story. Just like Ed Norton did for the movie.

This isn’t unique, or I should say exclusive, to writing.

Businesses are like this, too.

A founder may think the next step is a new strategy.

But it might be hiring one person or meeting one mentor.

It could be their next customer. Or their next supplier.

The promise of the story never changes. But the way the story is told changes any time the cast changes.

I was thinking backwards. I thought the story was creating the characters. And sometimes it does. But more often, characters are there just waiting to be invited in.

Every book seems to ask something of its author. This one has raised a new question for me.

Most of you know the question that has guided my work for years: What does this make possible? That question hasn’t changed.

But writing this book has introduced a second question that sits alongside it:

Why does this (storyline, scene, character) matter to us beyond the pages of this book?

As I visited that question this past week, the answer was that just like I’ve been trying to force progress with the book that wasn’t going to happen by force, the same thing was true for my business. Not just Cooper’s business. Mine. Perhaps for yours as well.

I didn’t need someone to rescue the story. Not for the book or my business. But I did need to recognize that there was someone the work itself had been waiting for. And when they show up, we know it.

But no meaningful reflection has just one side.

This isn’t just about waiting for or inviting characters to appear. Not every character deserves equal, or especially unending, page time.

Authors cut characters constantly. Directors cut entire scenes.

Once again, the same is true for businesses.

Companies keep people in roles they no longer belong in.

Founders keep doing jobs that should belong to someone else.

Part of a founder’s most important work is the same as a writer’s: the continuous discovery of who belongs. From the moment someone enters the story until the day they leave.

We need to get better at seeing the arc of those characters in both places.

Perhaps where many of us are, the question for us right now isn’t “What happens next?”

Maybe it’s about who hasn’t entered or exited the story yet.

Who is your story still waiting for?

Is there a role someone’s still standing in that no longer fits?

If you’re not sure, think about who in the past showed up just when the story needed them — did you recognize it in time, or only see it looking back?

If one of those questions feels like it’s speaking to you, I’d love to hear about it. Send me a direct message, and let’s continue the conversation.

If you are new to The Possibility Factor, this publication offers a behind-the-scenes look each week at the book I’m currently writing under the same working title.

Our central character is Cooper North, a business owner at a crossroads who is learning that much of what he thought he knew is no longer giving him the answers he needs. We are following his journey as he learns to ask better questions.

Note: You can find the earlier chapters and reflections collected here: The Possibility Factor.