The best piece of writing advice you'll ever get is that every aspect of the story should be interrelated. This is why I want to talk about the character's outer journey. Basically, this means the plot, but really, what it means is how the plot affects the character. The connection between the two elements is a bit more clear here, and since the connection is what's most important, let's break down what exactly the character's outer journey means.
Some people will talk about a character's outer journey, especially in relation to their inner journey, and what they mean by this is the story's plot. The outer journey is what the character does. It's where they go in the world and what happens there. It's external. It's action. And it's observable. Basically, it's what the audience can see happening. How this effects them is the inner journey (and I'll explain more on that later.)
What's most important to remember is that the character's outer journey and inner journey must be tightly related. Something happens to the character (and external event caused by the plot), and then they respond and react and decided to do something (if they are an active character) or cause something to happen to them (if they are a passive character.) This makes the character to learn, grow, change, adapt, etc. which leads to their character arc or inner journey. The outer journey and inner journey aren't quite the same thing, but they should be dependent on each other.
Key characteristics of the outer journey include:
Leaving the normal world to a new world between act one and act two. An example of this is Katniss leaving District 12 and going to the Capitol in The Hunger Games. And Luke leaving Tatooine and heading to Aldaraan in Star Wars.
The outer journey ends when the character gets what they want (and the story should be completed as close to here as possible.) Examples of this include Aang defeating Fire Lord Ozai in Avatar the Last Airbender. Indiana Jones securing the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark, etc.
For more information, check out this video by Film Courage with Michael Hauge where he talks about Helping A Screenwriter Understand The Inner & Outer Journey Of A Character. And this post about How to Write Story Plot from MasterClass.
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