Character Motivation
Kurt Vonnegut said: ‘Every character should want something, even if
it’s only a glass of water.’ Your character’s motivations don’t just drive the
plot, they define them as people. Motivation is the core of characterisation.
Big/Primary Wants
Your character's primary want will impact on the plot arc--either
acting as a driving force or a critical choice in the story's climax. A classic
romance plot may revolve around a woman who seeks to further her career, with
promotion being her primary want. At some critical juncture, she will have to
choose between her career and the man who has come into her life. In an action
novel, perhaps a man's child has been kidnapped and his primary want is
returning his family to safety. Here he is less likely to make a choice; rather
it is the driving force to keep him moving through the obstacles the plot
provides.
Some will tell you this is what separates a character driven plot from
an action driven one, suggesting that plots driven by character wants are
character driven and plots where characters respond to events are action
driven.
However even plots that are driven by events and environment are
strengthened by strong driving forces (primary wants) behind the characters.
Your character’s wants are what give the story urgency, so look at your plot
and how your main character's (and your primary villain's) wants reflect and
compliment the arc of the plot.
Take for example a man lost in the wilderness after plane crash. If he
is driven by the need to stay alive and nothing else, it could be a good story.
However if the plane was carrying medicine his daughter needed to survive and
he is not just trying to stay alive, but trying to get home in time to save her
life, the tension instantly shoots up.
Little Wants
Little or temporary wants are what drive individual scenes. Maybe your
character’s primary want is to save their boyfriend from a mutant slug-beast.
However in order to do that, she needs to steal her father’s car keys. Stealing
the car keys becomes her want and driving force for that scene. Every single
character in your story should want something at all times, just as every
living thing around you wants something at all times. They may not always act
on those wants, but you should be aware of them and have them act accordingly.
This is not limited to main characters and villains, but minor
characters, the crowd—if you want to make your setting seem real, they all have
to be real, complete people. Every single character with a name or even a
passing description in my books has a short profile. It lists any information
about them in the text, and at least one thing they want—be it in that scene,
or in their life. Consider doing the same.
Internal Conflicts
Aside from what they want, what are your characters afraid of? I don’t
mean spiders and snakes. Who are they afraid they will disappoint? What are
they afraid to die without completing? Who do they desperately want love from?
What are they terrified they will fail at?
Sometimes these can be scary things to explore, particularly if you are
repressing your own internal conflicts day to day. The truth is, a lot of us
spend much of our time terrified. Terrified to talk in front of a group. Terrified
to admit what we want, in case people laugh at us. Terrified of rejection or
success or responsibility.
Personally? I’m scared to wear really red lipstick. I have friends who
wear the cat eye and deep red lips and they look amazing. I think ‘I want to do
that’ and I don’t, because I think I’ll look silly. Why? I don’t know.
Readers want to empathise. Once you realise that everyone has
insecurity and shame and anxiety sometimes, it makes it easier to write
characters that people identify with. They bond with them, because they can
share that secret fear. The fear people will laugh when you say you’re writing
a novel. The fear that sexy guy will reject you. The fear that people are noticing
that massive pimple you shouldn’t have picked at that morning.
Internal conflicts should not all be petty things. One or two
occasional petty things are nice and make a character human, after that they
become whiny and self centred. But there are big internal conflicts—recovering
from trauma, fear or success or failure, fear of losing love and being
rejected. These we want to see in spades. And we want to see characters that
break through their fear and forge on, despite the risks.
Because that’s why we read.
External Conflicts
External conflicts are primarily tension between characters and events.
You need both in equal measure to create a book that really resonates with
readers. However different genres tend to tilt in favour of different sorts of
conflict. Romances rely heavily on tension between characters, however
adventure tends to be more focused on events. I feel this is a bad rule in
general and if you feel one of these is your weakness; you should focus on that
area for a while.
Your external conflicts are generally the things your character can not
control—other people, bombs, hurricanes, slug monsters, etc. However how they
react to them defines them as a character. The harder the decisions they have
to make, the more we get to see of what they’re really made of inside.
The Right Tool For The Job
Hopefully now you are already thinking about wants, internal conflicts
and external conflicts—not just of your main character, but of your supporting
cast too. Remember to make notes in your character profile and chapter synopsis
too—so these things remain consistent throughout your story.
One thing I want you to ask yourself though, is why your character? Why
are they different from all the other people who want the same thing? Why does
their want and story surpass the wants and stories of the people around them?
You need to have a reasonable answer for that—particularly if they are
taking action no one else is taking. Recently a friend had done all the right
things and given his characters wants and conflicts and woven them all into the
plot. However one character’s driving force was to protect her children. But
all mothers want that. Her children were in the same danger as many others and
the character was timid and unskilled. Why was she the only one going on a
quest to save them? What about the two hundred other more capable, brave and
intelligent women in the city?
This is why you have to think of the minor characters as real people
too. The crowd. The inn-keepers and apple-sellers of your world.
When you come to sell your story, editors are going to be asking the
same thing. Why this book? Why this character? Give them the best damn answer
you have.
More on this next week, when we cover Designing Characters.
