Goals, Motives, and Purposes, Part I

What your characters want

Consider Kurt Vonnegut's famous rule:

"Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water."

Can you make a grueling story out of this? Why, yes. And you could do it in all sorts of ways.

Consider

• Jack travels through the desert, without a waterskin. He knows there are springs and even some ways to find them, but he sees none of the signs near him.

• James wants to keep his fast until midnight. It will determine whether he can advance as a paladin. Part of the vigil is that they laid out water and bread before him.

• Jill seeks out the magical firebird in the enchanted forest, to cure the king's blindness

• Joan is the daughter of a prince and a merchant's daughter, who were married off by a tyrannical king against their will, because their children could not inherit. As soon as the king died, the couple swore in a church court that they had married against their wills and were separated. She wishes she could drink of the cup of sovereignty as acknowledgment that she was the prince's daughter, but knows she could cause war and disaster in the realm, and would thus be unfit to be a sovereign.

Let us first discuss some different things, and the terminology I will use.

The first is a character's motive, or the inner longing that drives their actions.

Then there are purposes, which is a concrete objective that fulfills a major motive -- or is meant to. Jack's is a spring.

Goals are short-term things, instrumental to getting to a purpose, or a minor purpose.

When considering motives, Maslow's hierarchy of needs can help. Physical needs, security, friendship and love, esteem, and the misnamed "self-actualization" -- call it meaning and dedication instead. It refers to rising above yourself to a higher purpose.

Be sure to elaborate the motive enough to make it specific to the character. Note that a character can in fact be motivated by everything in the list -- and everything on the list can likewise push against what he does.

This is extremely useful in characterization. Purposes can be specific to a character, but it is much more individual when it is powered by motive.

Jack's motive, for instance, is physical need. He will die without the water. He also needs to get to a place where he is more secure, and will need water along the way. He might also be motivated by the need his family has for him (friendship and love), by unwillingness to crack under pressure (esteem), and by desire to see justice done to the knaves who are to blame (dedication).

So, with Jack, we have a riveting tale of how he pieced together signs of water, had his hopes dashed a couple of time, and finally got water enough to drink.

Quite possibly with his motives in conflict at some points, because he might have to climb a dangerous slope, face a predator, or otherwise risk his life in order to save it by finding water.

A character change can stem from re-ordering motives without even brushing on the purpose.

If Jack starts out with the driving motives to survive and to show everyone he has what it takes to survive, he may, filthy, bedraggled, huddling in a cave against the cold of night, conclude that no one would be impressed by him, but remind himself of his family that needs him.

Or even, if he starts out determined to get back at the knaves responsible for his being lost, he may lose the edge of his fury. This could go to his realizing that he was responsible, either because his anger simply petered out, or he realized that things he was doing.

Or it could be -- say, discovering a skeleton in the desert and realizing that the knaves had other victims. The edge of fury having worn off, he gathers the evidence and dedicates him to the purpose of justice, to stopping them and punishing them for their evil, not just to him, but in general.

Which is a straightforward tale. More to follow, beginning here¹, with more here².

1.

2.