Developing Character Motivations in Fiction Writing
By Mary Kole
Mary Kole is a former literary agent, freelance editor, writing teacher, author of Writing Irresistible Kidlit, and IP developer for major publishers, with over a decade in the publishing industry.
If you want to create compelling, believable characters in your fiction writing, you need to identify the character motivations operating below the surface of your protagonist. After all, what your character wants (their objective) and why they want it are crucial ingredients to understanding your character. Character motivations are the reasons why a character does what they do—why they act, why they make certain decisions, or why they respond to things in a particular way. Let’s explore what character motivations are and how understanding them can help you write better characters.
What Are Character Motivations?
Character motivations explain what drives your characters to act or react in certain ways—especially your protagonist. (Though I would argue that you should know what drives all of your characters, though obviously not to the same degree.)
On the surface level, character objectives could also be driven by external factors such as money or power. However, character motivations usually spring from a deeper well below the surface. These deeper feelings are often driven by emotions and feelings such as love, hate, anger, jealousy, fear, guilt, ambition, revenge, and are inspired by character needs. Believe it or not, but character objectives, motivations, and needs are separate things.
Character needs are what truly drive your character, but in most stories, the character shifts from being driven by wants to being driven by needs around the midpoint.
Why Do Writers Need To Develop Character Motivations?
Developing character motivations will help you create more believable and engaging stories, because these deeper character details provide an insight into their characters’ inner workings and thought processes. And, at a very basic level, we all know what it feels like to want something. We can all relate to this, as readers, and once we find ourselves relating, we’re already engaged with the character and their story.
When readers can relate to your character’s feelings and actions because it makes sense to them on an emotional level, then you have successfully drawn your readers into your story world and made them care about what happens next.
How Do Character Motivations Change Over The Course Of A Plot?
Character motivations often change over the course of a plot. For example, if a character starts out with a motivation of seeking revenge against someone who hurt them, this may change after they find out something new about their enemy, which softens their opinion. Perhaps the protagonist realizes that revenge isn’t really necessary from an ethical standpoint, and your main character decides to forgive them instead. Or maybe there’s a plot twist and the character bands together with their former enemy to take down the real perpetrator of the original wrong. This kind of character development over time can form the backbone of a story, as the character learns and grows and changes, using interiority to convey their frame of mind.
When readers understand character motivations, this helps make the story more compelling. Digging into these character outlines also helps you create more believable plots. Events will start to make sense when readers understand where each action comes from emotionally, rather than seeing the story as a random jumble of events. The more you explore character motivations, the more your readers will reward you with their attention.
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