Writing Essentials: Character Motivation/Intention

Within our narrative we have two major contrasting points to play with: what we put in text vs. what we put in subtext.

Writing a story is an exercise in information delivery ->

·       Provide too few details to build a clear enough picture for the reader and the reader will feel detached as the story will be lacking in relatability.

·       Provide too many details and the reader will lose interest as the story will be lacking in intrigue.

·       Provide the wrong details at the wrong time and the reader will be confused as the story will be lacking a sound foundation. 

Taking these points into consideration, we look at our character as the thick red thread meant to assist us in ensuring we keep the balance with our information delivery.

In the previous post we learned that every consequence riding on the back of a choice should offer a hook for the reader to want to know what will happen next and how/if our character will reach endgame.

To discern what choice will make a good hook we return to our Ego/Shadow/Self dynamic and, based on what we’ve decided for our character so far, we now consider their motivation vs. their intention.

The motivation/intention dynamic is based on our character’s subconsciously need vs. their conscious want.

Character motivation is subconscious and explored through our subtext.

Character intention is conscious and stated in our text.

For example:

Our trapped character wants to control their claustrophobia to escape the room they’re locked in.  

As the character want is part of the mechanism that offers clarity to the reader it’s meant to be straightforward.

The reader being fully included in our character’s intention to gain control of themselves and escape provides the reader with a clear sense of direction for the plot and an understanding of what trajectory our story is meant to take: a claustrophobic character wants to escape the room they’re trapped in, and the reader is meant to root for them gaining their freedom.

Intention and want relate to our plot progression.

Motivation and need relate to our character journey.

If we know what our character’s intention is then the best way to decide on the motivation is to dig deeper into our character’s stated flaw.

The stated flaw is all about what our character needs to work on within the situation they find themselves in.

To bring tension and internal conflict to our situation we’ve decided that our character’s stated flaw is that they’re claustrophobic.

But tied to this stated flaw there needs to be a core flaw that the character is blind to. 

We put the stated flaw in the text so that the core flaw can be explored in the subtext through choice/consequence.

Choice/consequence brings the core flaw out of the subconscious and into the conscious as our character grows self-aware enough to recognize it.

This ties our character’s internal journey with the external plot progression, providing meaning to both.

Finding the Root Cause

We can find the answer to what our character’s core flaw should be by asking: What is the root cause of our character’s claustrophobia?

Getting to the root, exposing it, and accepting it is the progression our character journey takes to reach a fulfilling endgame.

The unpacking of the core flaw ties directly back to our Ego/Shadow/Self dynamic with the root of the core flaw linking with our character’s Shadow.

Our character’s stated intention is to control their fear of confined spaces and focus on finding a means of escape.

Our character’s internal motivation when the story begins is linked strongly with their stated intention: escape. 

But in the subtext, we think a step further and ask: What are they really trying to escape from?

The literal escape from a locked room that we see in the text, in the subtext becomes an exploration of the symbolic lock within our character and how to unlock it.

What our character ultimately needs isn’t to control their fear so that they may escape, rather what they need is the freedom they’ll obtain by releasing the fear that in fact controls them.

This means that we can play with the true motivation behind our character’s intention not being control but a contrasting need for stillness, for calm, for acceptance.

As the subconscious motivation of acceptance clashes with the conscious intention of control we get organic internal conflict by asking: What events will most strongly force our character out of their need for control (familiarity and comfort) and into a, to begin with, forced state of calm (unfamiliarity and discomfort)?

Our character’s core lesson is to realize that control based in fear isn’t control at all.

Their core truth is discovered when they’ve dug up the root of their phobia and are able to deal with it as best fits with the theme our story is exploring.

To learn this lesson we can deduce that the events they face within our narrative must push their need for control to a point where there’s nothing left but the fear behind it so that our character may begin to fully confront that fear and find the root of it. 

In the next post we’ll build further on this concept by taking a closer look at the interconnectedness between internal/external conflict and internal/external obstacles.