Character Goals and Motivations
In our last week of prepping for NaNoWriMo, it’s time to ponder your character’s goals and motivations. For previous “Preptober” articles, check out How to develop Your Story Idea, Develop Your Characters, and 50 Questions to Build Your Fictional World.
Goals and Motivations
Your character’s goals and motivations provide the drive and reason for your character to leave their normal life and venture into your story. They are the reason your character acts, and why they are compelled to do so. Without them, you have no story, so choose carefully!
Choosing Your Character’s Goal
In any story, your character’s primary goal is the “What” that drives the narrative.
Their goal is what they want to achieve or attain. Whether your character’s goals are internal or external, they need to be strong enough to convince your character to act, and then to tackle the obstacles between them and their goal. Goals are also why your readers can cheer on your characters—they give your readers something to root for.
For a fun list of goals, check out the Character Goal Generator from FantasyNameGenerators.com. It kicks out another 10 ideas each time you click the Get goals button.
Nailing Your Character’s Motivation
While your character’s goal is the “What” your character’s motivation is the “Why”. The motivation should drive them so much that they will endure pain, fear, loss, or suffering to attain or achieve their goal.
A character’s motivation comes from trying to fulfill a need lacking in their life. However, your character often won’t know what their need is. When this happens, their goal (what they think they want) can conflict with their motivation (what they actually need).
Your character’s primary goals will keep them on task and moving forward. You can use these goals to justify their actions and make their decisions seem reasonable. By giving them a motivation that fills a need they lack, you will also make your characters relatable and, hopefully, sympathetic to your readers, too.
Goals and Motivations Can Change!
Depending on your genre, your character’s primary goals and motivation may evolve or change over the course of the story. What they want and need at the start of the book may no longer be their focus by the climax of your novel. That’s okay.
Just make sure you lay out the reasons behind the change and show the new goals to the reader.
If you write into the dark (a.k.a “pants” your story), you may not know your character’s goals or motivations before writing. That’s okay too—the “real” reasons motivating their characters sometimes surprise even plotters.
But, if you get stuck while drafting, or are uninspired by a scene in your story during revision, dig into the goals and motivations of the characters in the scene. This approach may shake some ideas loose!
How do you approach your characters’ goals and motivations?