 Short Stories: February 27, 2019 Issue [#9407] |
This week: Thinking About Character Motivation Edited by: Jay's debut novel is out now!  
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| Some observations on how to go about building characters that interest your audience! |
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So my partner and I are slogging through a Netflix show that I'm declining to name because I don't want to yuck on anyone's yum, but we're finding it very difficult for reasons that he had trouble articulating at first but which I figured out more or less immediately.
The main characters' motivations don't make any sense. At all.
There's maybe one character out of an entire ensemble whose actions match their stated goals and ambitions. It's kind of infuriating to watch, but my partner and I are both stubborn people, so we're sticking with it  if only because we just want to know how they're going to wrap this whole thing up.
Character motivation is a many-layered thing, and it can be difficult to control in a short story, for example, because you don't have a lot of space to fill out what sort of people your story is about. Bold strokes can be useful in this sense, but that doesn't mean you can't have nuance, either.
If we think of motivation as a fuel for storytelling, it makes a decent metaphor, I think. If the character doesn't have any fuel, how can they get where they're meant to go? Certainly some types of storytelling reward characters with little to no motivation, but I think for most English-speaking markets, characters with motivations are the norm and are the most likely to get good results when it comes to publishing.
So, how do we give our characters good fuel to be successful on their journeys? That fuel can come from a lot of places--it could be that you've built this character to be a very driven person who has a specific goal in mind. That's great, as it means one fewer thing you'll have to figure out later. Someone who has a will to attain something, by itself, is not an innately-driven character, but this will is a lot to go on. If you put some kind of substantial or at least significant hurdle in front of their quest to attain their goal, you will be giving them good fuel for story.
Perhaps, though, you've been struck by a character design that is more complicated than simply "has a goal and will do something in the attempt to achieve it." I know, I am also often gripped by characters whose needs and wants are more complicated than that as well. I find that in many circumstances, a good way to play with wants and needs, for character motivation, is to pit the character's wants and needs against one another. For example, a character who wants something very badly, but attaining that thing means losing something else.
That tenuous balance is delicious story fuel, especially if these things can then be folded over into your other characters' wants and needs as well. One of the simplest plots that's still highly effective when used well is simply to have two characters with competing wants, where only one can possibly prevail. Lots of fuel in there, whether your main character succeeds or fails.
There's also the question of characterization, which ties into motivation, I feel. Those wants and needs that drive our characters forward should have some consistency to them. Contradiction makes characters interesting--think of how many stogie-chomping doctors one sees on old television shows--but the contradictions should still make sense for the character. If the character's motivations contradict something about the character, try to find ways for this to be meaningful rather than simply something that makes your characters "quirky." (Quirky characters are fine--but they should still have believable patterns of behavior!)
Another thing, another bit of character fuel, continuing this metaphor, is the idea of change--readers love to see change and growth in characters. That change and growth should still be consistent with the story being told--especially in short stories. Characters whose decisions aren't consistent, whose struggles don't lead to growth--they can and do work, don't get me wrong. But, all told, that isn't going to work with all, or even most, character designs. Consistency is key--and not even in the ways we usually use that phrase. 
All of these elements together can be good fuel for character development. What good tips or tricks have you found? I'd love to hear from you, and I'd love to feature your comments in an upcoming issue of the Short Stories newsletter.
Until next time,
Take care and Write on!
All the best,
Jay
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From "The Three-Stage Rocket"
Quick-Quill  writes:
I probably do write in the 3-act style, I don't don't know how to do it in an outline or actually write it by "Acts"on purpose. I just write and let the chips fall as they may.
I think that's pretty common, Quick-Quill! Structure is a tricky thing to do even when you've studied it for a long time. |
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