Motivation.
This is the powerful emotion that inspires people to get off the couch and grab a tub of ice cream. It’s the only thing that is strong enough to pull me out of a very warm bed when it’s still dark and cold outside. It’s what inspires Harry Potter to defeat Voldemort in Harry Potter, Elizabeth Gilbert to find food, meaning, and companionship respectively in Eat Pray Love, and Frodo Baggins to make the long walk to Mordor in The Lord of the Rings.
UPDATED 5/17/19
Your characters have to want something
Every good book begins with a protagonist who wants something. There’s a reason you don’t generally see books about characters cast about by the whims of fate without any sense of purpose or desire, or, worse, characters who are aimlessly wandering about trying to find their purpose. Even Odysseus, essentially a powerless character blown about by the gods, has a rock-solid motivation: he wants to get home.
Wanting something is what makes protagonists interesting. It’s what makes readers invested in finding out if the character is going to get the things that he or she wants. It’s what makes these characters feel like living, breathing humans. After all, we all want something at any given moment.
Your character does not have to know what he or she wants on page one, but it should be conclusively clear by page 30, preferably earlier. Every step that your protagonist takes after this point should be a step toward this goal, though the forward progress will be thwarted by obstacles and other characters, who have their own set of desires and motivations.
Make what they want complicated
Many stories, especially genre novels, have a built-in motivation that’s kicked off at the beginning, like a parent whose child was kidnapped or a save-the-princess fantasy novel. The character’s motivation is immediately apparent based on the situation they find themselves in.
Better yet is a novel where a character wants more than one thing and these two things are at odds. The main character might want to save the princess, but he might just have his eye on the king’s throne as well, and so he has to decide by the end of the novel which of these two motivations are more important to him.
Better still is a character that wants things that are internally contradictory, so that the character not only has to battle exterior obstacles to get what he or she wants, but the character also has to battle their own conflicting desires.
Competing desires
Here’s a way of illustrating that in A Game of Thrones style.
- Good: Ned Stark wants to help his friend, King Robert, protect the realm.
- Better: Ned Stark wants to help his friend, King Robert, while also protecting his family.
- Best: Ned Stark wants to help his friend, King Robert, while also protecting his family and maintaining his personal sense of honor, but he may only be able to do one of the three.
When I was crafting the plot of Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow, it was important to me that Jacob should have competing desires in the climax. He isn’t just trying to figure out how to get home to Earth, as he isn’t even sure if he wants to go home. He isn’t sure at all about what to do in the end.
Before the climax, I steadily built up the idea that perhaps Jacob’s dad was in outer space. Jacob could continue looking for his dad in space or he could return home with his friends, but he couldn’t do both. He had to overcome his own internal battles to make this choice. He had contradictory motivations.
The desires of your characters will help shape these crucial choices in your novel. Every time you introduce something a character wants, either internal or external—regardless of whether they want to save a princess, seek acceptance from their parents, or snare a white whale—you’re introducing a plot arc.
Hone your plot arcs
A plot or character arc is basically a drawn-out process in which a character wants something and then tries to get it. The arc closes when they succeed or fail in getting what they want.
Every single character you introduce, major or minor, from your protagonist to the pizza delivery robot, should have their own plot arc(s) with defined goals and motivations.
If you’re a planner, write these arcs down and know them by heart. Map them out from beginning to end. You should be able to create a spreadsheet of everyone’s arcs, which are shaped by the things they want and their high points and low points as they try to get them.
If you’re an improviser, make sure that when you’re finished with your draft, you can trace these arcs from start to finish. Look for moments when characters don’t display enough motivation, and consider rearranging some events to make the arcs fit together more cohesively.
The more important the character, the longer and more complex the plot arc(s). For instance, your main protagonist’s and your main villain’s plot arcs should be introduced early in the novel, and you will probably have a rather nuanced view of their desires and contradictions.
We probably don’t need to know about the existential crises of the pizza delivery robot, but it should still show some sort of motivation if it is to be an interesting character.
Why your characters are flat
Motivation is often where writers miss opportunities. Their characters seem flat because there’s nothing beating in their hearts. A character without motivation is an automaton. They’re just going through the motions.
Instead, at every step of the way, on every page, with every exchange of dialogue and every action, the best characters are actively trying to achieve their desires. Every character is motivated. Always ask yourself what they want. Then construct obstacles, whether internal, external, or both, that stand in their way. They’re encountering characters or monsters or inanimate barriers that want something different than they do and that are stopping them from getting what they want.
Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!
For my best advice, check out my guide to writing a novel (now available in audio) and my guide to publishing a book.
And if you like this post: subscribe to my newsletter!
Art: Désirs by William Kendall
Marilyn, that’s a nice little book list there. I loved Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller, hated House of Leaves, and both Cloud Atlas and The Gold Bug Variations are on my To Be Read shelf. Though I might go for Powers’ The Echo Maker first, as that sounds great. And I applaud you for getting through House of Leaves, as the only way I’d get through that book was if it was written by David Foster Wallace. Sadly, it wasn’t. Though I did admire the idea of it in the abstract… (I had the same reaction recently to Bolano’s The Savage Detectives. I’m hoping 2666 is better.
My best, as always,
Bryan Russell
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for this post! I’ve been having trouble with my main character’s motivation (though everyone else’s seemed abundantly clear). So I wrote out everyone’s arcs, just to see…and I finally realized what hers was, and how they all tie together with the main plot. My problem is solved, and it’s because of you!
Mira, I would totally participate in that character blog! Let me know if you do start it 🙂
Lots of great comments here; I love reading all the suggestions!
For YA I’m trying to think of secondary characters who “want” things.
Mostly, I come up empty. Or if they do it’s something so superficial it’s like getting a date with someone, and then, miraculously, they do, in a totally unbelievable fashion.
Great in theory, but not many books have it in practice.
Several books have been suggested. I am overwhelmed. If you have to pick one (for a new writer) which book would you pick?
Aaralyn,
It’s so cool that you’ve seen Watchmen! I can’t wait to see it. Have you read the graphic novel? I heard a reviewer say that the movie was especially made for fans of the graphic novel. It’s amazing, even won a Hugo award. It goes incredibly into detail about the psychological makeup of each character. In the movie, there’s a boy reading a comic book at a newsstand. In the book, the reader gets to read the actual comic book; and the writing in it is so incredible, it reads like a classic novel.
Hi, Bryan/Ink,
I read House of Leaves as part of an online book club. It seems to be a book that people either really love or really hate. It’s definitely…very different. LOL. 🙂
Yep, definitely stealing this for my high school creative writing kids. Thanks Mr. Bransford.
Great post, Nathan.
Alan Rinzler has a wonderful post about “Falling in Love with Your Characters”. Certainly worth a look.
So when are you going to be teaching creative writing?
Motivation.
One of my esteemed critique partners asked me what, besides lust, drove my MC to solve a murder mystery. :o) I had to stop and think about it. A good sign to do some major re-writing.
You may be a bit too general here,
“Every good book begins with a protagonist who wants something.”
I do agree with,
“What Do Your Characters Want?”
If for instance you were writing historical fiction and covered 200 years, you may not start with a single protagonist. The characters that would come and go, however, should be trying to achieve some goal–even if it is just to survive to the next day.
Great description! Thanks for getting to the bare bones.
Wow! Nathan must love getting his ego stroked by all of you suck-ups!
Marilyn,
I haven’t read the graphic novel yet, but the great things about books and movies is that they can go both ways. (Books can make me want to see movies and movies can make me want to read books.) The movie was interesting; it gave me a lot to think about.
I thought I had put in a lot of work for the characters of my story, but I have nothing on the characters and motivations used in
“Watchmen.” The movie was really interesting. I am just trying to
figure out why I like the Comedian so much. I still rooted for him even though he could never be defined as a good person. I hope you enjoy the movie! Email me and let me know what you think. 🙂
Yes, but Nathan, what happens when those darling sub-characters and their tasty subplot arcs threaten to derail your main plot arc? Trimming a good sub-character and taming his/her arc can feel like amputating a toe. Sure, you’ll survive, but your balance will never be the same again.
I’m looking forward to Thursday’s post about conflicts. 🙂
This is great, thanks Nathan. As you said at the beginning of the post, this should be obvious, but it helps seeing it written out. And I love the SMB examples.
Aaralyn,
Hope I can see Watchmen this week. Heard the movie ending is different than the one in the book. Loved the book ending, so am very curious to see how the movie ends. Also, can’t wait to see how Jon looks.
OK, I’m jumping on the bandwagon to say this is very useful. Motivation is something I’ve always thought deeply about with characters, ever since I was a kid–you can tell when the characters lack it when the story feels contrived. Also, improperly understanding characters’ motivations is, I would guess, the biggest contributor to plot holes. I.e., the reader asks, “Why didn’t that lummox just do X?” If the answer is, “Because then he wouldn’t be in the right place at the right time for the exciting conclusion,” then you’ve got a problem.
What I most appreciate about this post, though, is the reminder that all minor characters need motivations and should actively pursue their desires. Sometimes I forget to ask my minor characters why they’re in the story at all. If they don’t have a good answer, they get chucked out.
Quote from BSG:
“Just because you don’t know your direction doesn’t mean you don’t have one.”
Words to live (and write) by.
I am coming late to the conversation, but what great comments. I would add that every person we meet is just like our characters: everyone wants something that conflicts with other desires they have and the desires of the people around them want. When we interact socially with that in mind, we can understand why people (and characters) do the things they do!
Does it count if what my character wants is to figure out what she wants??