See, if I am just expressing my ideas about the characters, I'm always afraid it will come across as an essay rather than a story, especially in being too static. So what I need is: [a] an idea about the characters and [b] that flash of a sequence of events that will take them through an emotional arc--more or less at the same time. If I only have an idea, as I said, it tends to fail as a story, and if I only have things I'd like the characters to do, it comes across as hollow and dull. I probably do better with only [b] than only [a], though; since I have a restrained prose style, it can be easier to let the characterization fill in around the facts.