Developing Character Goals and Motivations

There is no right or wrong answers when it comes to writing. One idea of developing characters is to create layers within your story. A drawing is often considered good when a twenty second glance doesn't catch all the details. You keep looking and finding new things. There's something about layers that appeals to people. So when it comes to characters, figure out their layers. A few of these layers will be related to the character's goals and motivations.

Goals are what your character wants or feel they need to achieve. Motivations are the push behind the goals-the reasoning for going after the goal. All this can be simple. Bill likes steak, so decides to drive an hour and half to the nearest steak house. Or it can be a little more in depth. Bill avoids children at all costs because he grew up with three obnoxious little brothers, no father, and is tired of having to look after people. There are all kinds of opportunity for great emotional charges behind character motivation.

Write down a list of goals for each main and supporting character. Your character may not be aware of all of their wants. They may not know what they want. Consider your own life-you don't always know what you're after. Sometimes the goal is vague-the character wants happiness, control, or to assuage some inner driven pain. These types of things can lead to myriad of actions that may or may not actually take them to these goals.

There's a little bit of psychology involved in this process. The very basics of psychology are that people move away from what is painful and towards what is pleasurable. This is true, even when they are sacrificing for a higher cause. The dilemma in such a case being between being pleased now or being pleased in the longer term. That's not to say sacrifice is easy, in fiction or in real life. It is however often done to avoid guilt. You risk death to save a person because if you sit and watch them die you're going to question yourself for the rest of your life. You are now labeled a coward, or powerless, or unjust (by yourself if no one else). It affects your core identity.

A lot of goal and motivation can spring from a character's core identity. What are their principals? What's truly important to them above all else? Honesty, love, strength, humility, ambition? What do they value in themselves? Occasionally what the character values most is what they believe they lack. A person values strength because they believe they are weak. It's a Wizard of Oz complex. Another spin on this concept is when the character lacks something they believe they should have been given. They value loyalty because they didn't feel they were given it by their parents, siblings, or friends. They try to make up for the faults of the previous generation or others close to them.

Hence, consider the various facets of your character's goals and motivations. Do this for more than just the main characters. What are the supporting characters after? A huge component of story is the crossing and conflicting of various characters' goals. A good amount of your story's substance will lie in the motivations and consequent actions prompted by these goals.

Sources:

Lavene, Joyce and Jim, The Everything Guide to Writing a Novel "From completing the first draft to landing a book contract-all you need to fulfill your dreams" F+W Publications, Inc. 2004