Do you have a hard time creating compelling motivations for your characters? Writers often find it easy to create wants, but hit a road block when it comes to why their characters want what they want. This makes it harder, if not impossible, to create high stakes for failure or to find the lines your hero will cross to reach their goal. In a post on Writer Unboxed, Susan DeFreitas shares three questions you can ask to help you figure it out.
“The protagonist’s goal is actually a key structural element in long-form storytelling,” she says. “If the character achieves the goal too early, the reader will get the signal that the story is essentially done, and now there’s just some writerly wrap up to be done. And if that character really doesn’t have a goal they’re trying to achieve at all, the story just won’t feel like a story, as far as your reader is concerned.”
DeFreitas suggests asking these questions:
- What in my protagonist’s past led them to desire this goal? Whatever the goal, the origin rests in your hero’s past. This is essential backstory.
- Why does this goal matter so much to my protagonist? “I’m talking about mattering in a way that has a strong emotional charge, because this is what will make the goal feel like it matters to the reader as well—and, as a consequence, charge each inch of progress toward achieving that goal with meaning and emotion as well, while making each setback in that same quest feel like a real bummer,” DeFreitas writes. Wanting money is a relatable goal, but wanting money for an important reason ensures your protagonist has skin in the game.
- What does this goal reveal about my protagonist? Why this goal and not another goal? The answer will say a lot about your character.
