Conflict

I signed up with Pixels of Ink.  Every day (dismayingly) there is quite a list of free or cheap books available at Amazon.  I download only the ones I think there is at least a 50-50 chance I'll get to.

Unfortunately most are disappointing and wind up DNF (Did Not Finish).  Many of them lack a center.  They lack a central conflict.  As I'm reading I can't answer the question "What does this character want?"  We are we left with the sense that nothing is happening because without conflict, nothing is happening.

CONFLICT
Man v. man
Man v. nature
Man v. self

It's not enough that your main character discovers they are a fey child or have a super power.  Saving the world is great, thanks for your efforts on my behalf!, but you need someone trying to prevent the saving of the world.  There must be an adversary.

Someone famous in the romance writing world gave a seminar and said "If your main character is an arsonist, the love interest has to be the fire investigator."

You need to personalize the struggle, the conflict.  Then you need to dramatize this conflict.  You must show incidents with rising intensity of the conflict playing out.

Again I will tell you go read a book on screenwriting.  Nothing will give you a clearer description of the three-act dramatic structure than that.

You're not writing a script?  You're not writing a drama?  Yeah, you are.

Readers don't care, all they want is a good story?  That's how you create a good story.