Defining character’s motivation in your story is part of the task of character building.
Your character has a rich past, shaped by experiences and events we've explored in previous posts about building character backstories. But more important than the past is your character's future—their hopes, dreams, and desires. While the future is always uncertain, one thing is clear: your character’s motivation defines their intentions and how they navigate the unknown. Motivation is the driving force behind every action your character takes, and understanding it is essential for creating compelling and believable stories.
At its core, motivation consists of three essential parts:
Values: The deeply held beliefs or truths that guide your character’s decisions.
Ambition: The overarching, abstract goal that defines what your character wants most in life.
Story Goal: The specific, concrete objective your character believes will help them achieve their ambition.
Once you understand these three elements, you’ll be able to construct characters with clear motivations, giving them realistic, relatable reasons to act. This, in turn, will help you write a more dynamic and engaging story.
Values are the core principles your character believes to be undeniably true. These are often formed from personal experiences or deeply ingrained worldviews. For example, your character might hold the belief that "family is everything" or "power must be earned." These values will shape not just the character’s actions but also their perceptions of the world.
Key Points About Values:
Inherent Truth: A value doesn’t need to be logical or universal—it just needs to be something your character believes. It could be entirely irrational to others, but to your character, it’s a guiding light.
Conflicting Values: Your character shouldn’t just have one value—they should have several, and these values should conflict. These contradictions make characters feel more human. A character who values freedom but also deeply values loyalty to family may struggle when these two principles collide.
Dynamic Tension: Over the course of the story, your character’s values can evolve, be challenged, or deepen. What happens when your character is forced to act against their own beliefs? This tension creates emotional depth and complexity.
Ambition is born out of values. It’s the abstract thing your character wants most in life, something that provides a sense of purpose. While values drive the "why" behind a character’s decisions, ambition defines the "what" they are striving for.
Ambitions tend to be abstract and aspirational. For example, a character might want to "bring justice to the world" or "become powerful enough to protect the weak." These ambitions give your character direction but are not easily quantifiable or attainable without struggle.
Examples of Ambitions:
Power: A character may seek power, but their reason could vary based on their values. One character may seek power to exact revenge, while another may desire it to protect those they care about.
Love: Another character may be driven by a desire for love and connection, rooted in their value of family or their need for belonging.
Wealth: For some, wealth might be the ambition, but whether it’s for personal security or to help others can drastically shift how they pursue this goal.
While ambition is abstract, the story goal is specific. It’s the tangible objective your character believes will help them achieve their ambition. If the ambition is the horizon your character is striving toward, the story goal is the next peak they need to climb to get there.
A story goal needs to be concrete and measurable. Unlike the broad nature of ambition, the story goal should give readers a clear indication of what success or failure looks like.
Elements of a Strong Story Goal:
Objective: The goal should be clearly defined so that the reader knows when it has been achieved (or not). For example, "defeating the villain" or "winning the championship."
Simple: While the journey may be complex, the goal itself should be easy to understand. It provides a clear aim, even if the path to get there is fraught with challenges.
High Stakes: The goal must matter both to the character and the audience. If the character doesn’t achieve their goal, the consequences should be significant, either personally or globally.
Difficulty: Achieving the story goal shouldn’t be easy. It should present obstacles that test the character’s determination, forcing them to confront their values, evolve, and adapt.
By understanding your character's values, ambition, and story goal, you can shape their actions throughout your narrative. Every choice they make will stem from their internal motivations, creating consistency in behavior and depth in storytelling. When motivations clash—either within the character or between characters—it leads to conflict, which is essential for driving the story forward.
For instance:
Internal Conflict: A character who values honesty but also yearns for acceptance may struggle when telling the truth could alienate those they care about.
Interpersonal Conflict: Two characters with similar ambitions (e.g., both want to become king) might have entirely different values driving them, leading to different strategies and inevitable conflict.
In addition to the main character’s goals, secondary characters should also have their own values, ambitions, and story goals. These goals often conflict with those of the protagonist, introducing additional layers of tension and creating more intricate plots. Each character’s story goal represents a narrative thread that, when woven together, enriches the overall story arc.
Character motivation is more than just knowing what your character wants—it’s about understanding why they want it and how they plan to achieve it. By carefully considering their values, ambitions, and story goals, you can create multifaceted characters who resonate with readers on an emotional level. These elements not only provide structure to your story but also ensure your characters remain relatable, believable, and deeply compelling.