Droplets from the Inkwell

Daily Prompt: Only thing worse than a boring motive is none

This blog post is in response to today's blog prompt over at the "Blogging Circle of Friends " .

"A writer said, a problem a protagonist can walk away from, is a book a reader can walk away from." ~ unknown. I saw it on Tumblr. Dp you agree with his statement? How important is the tension or the protagonist's mission to a story?

I want to start my post by making a statement that many people might find controversial: The protagonist can always walk away from a problem. Frodo absolutely could have stayed in the Shire, allowed the Nazgul find the ring, and watched as Sauron enslaved or slaughtered all of Middle Earth. Katniss could have kept quiet when her sister's name was drawn as tribute, and stayed comfortably in District 12 while everyone watched Prim die horribly. Instead, both of those protagonists made different choices, and as a result underwent hardships, overcame obstacles, and lived out a story. They made those choices for reasons. I maintain those reasons are central to the story. I also maintain that this is the best understanding of the above quote: That in good story telling -- whether on the printed page, on the screen, or in the interactive story-telling environment of an RPG -- understanding the motives of the protagonists (and in many cases, the antagonists, but that's probably best left for a separate blog post) is absolutely essential. It's the fact that Katniss loves Prim so deeply that she is willing to volunteer to face near-certain death herself in Prim's place that first draws you into the Hunger Games. If Katniss's name had simply been drawn at random instead, it might have still been a good story but without the same power and intensity. If Katniss had simply decided she wanted to participate in the Hunger Games simply because she thought it would a lark,(1) well, I think that would just be too unbelievable to continue reading.

This is something I've been exploring as I learn to play Dungeons and Dragons. Right now, hubby and I have started a single player campaign (he's the DM, I'm the player). I'm playing a Halfling monk with a somewhat detailed backstory. One of the things that we had to discuss is what my character's motives for taking on this campaign is. Because "getting gold and magical weapons" by itself just isn't going to matter to my monk (though I have a few ideas how he might use that gold, based on his backstory and personality). It's also not going to hold my interest as the player. So we've worked together to figure out what it is about this series of quests and adventures that make them worth taking up in my monk's mind.

Notes:
(1) Now, a story in which she didn't know what the Hunger Games were all about and didn't realize just how terrible they would be could be an interesting story in its own right. Then the story would be about her discovering what she had gotten herself into and how to deal with it now that it's too late to change her mind. But as the story was actually written, she knew exactly what the Hunger Games were about because she's watched them in previous years.


JarredH

Give me pen and paper and I shall create entire worlds and fill them with adventures.