Are Your Characters Motivated?

Writing requires motivation. It is that thing that requires caffeine, purpose and often a Herculean-sized will power, not to mention the real possibility of therapy.

Motivation is what propels action in both people and characters. It was what gets your butt in the seat and the words flowing, whether like creeping lava or a flash flood.

Motivation is what keeps you coming back day after day to write, even when you don’t feel like it.

The truth is there are days when sitting down to write is not easy, before the first word is even conceived. But no one said it would be easy. It’s not. It is also not the point of this article. We all know writing is hard. (You can talk about your personal motivation with your therapist or friends.)

This point of this blog is to explore motivation as it relates to character.

What keeps your protagonist moving through the story and the secondary characters following along behind?

Motivation is the why of your story. Why does your character respond the way he does to specific stimuli? It is determining what forms the psychological reasoning behind her responses and reactions.

Constantin Stanislavski, the Russian father of acting, believed that an actor was motivated by his mind and that acting came from the emotion of the subconscious. It is one of the main tenets of his system of acting–a system that taps into personal emotional experiences to recreate emotions on stage. This is a skill worth knowing when it comes to writing characters.

If you can tap into the subconscious of your memories and apply them to characters, you will write with more depth. The trick is to use that innate motivation to spur action and dialogue. If you feel what your characters feel, you have a better chance of translating that emotion to your audience.

Explore your character’s motivation in each scene:

What in your character’s background makes her respond the way she does?
What formed his personality that dictates his action in a particular situation?
What is the psychology of his backstory?
How does that move the story forward?
Why is your character doing what she is doing?
How is that different from your other characters?
What is the motivation for this action or dialogue?

Most importantly, you need to answer the question “Why?” for every scene. Channel your inner toddler and keep asking, “But why?” and you will be halfway there. Why is he doing what he’s doing? If you can figure out your character’s subconscious, you can write her actions and reactions more authentically.

Just be careful not to anticipate the storyline, which is the novel equivalent of an actor crossing the room to answer the door before the knock is heard. Tell only what is needed to move the story forward and no more. Don’t jump ahead or foreshadow, unless it is done consciously to raise the tension (which is another topic altogether).

So what motivates your characters? What moves them? What terrifies them?