How to Craft Powerful Character Motivations
Imagine you enter a room to find two men fighting. You don’t know the men, and neither shout anything that reveals who they are or why they’re exchanging blows. So when one man delivers a knock-out punch to his opponent, you don’t know what to think.
Did a violent aggressor just harm an innocent man? Did the victor disable a criminal who’d intended to injure others? Are both men equally nefarious? Or equally righteous in their intent?
As an ignorant observer, the altercation and its consequences mean little to you because you don’t understand the context in which the event took place. Instead, you’re left with questions. Who were the men? And more importantly, why were they fighting?
Understanding the reason the men came to blows would not only lend context to the conflict; it would help you understand your place in it. Should you join in the fight, helping one man defeat the other? Should you run for your life, call for aid, or roll your eyes at the men’s petty squabble?
Actions may speak louder than words, but the motivations behind one’s actions will tell you everything you need to know.
As a writer, the motivations that drive your characters hold just as much power and importance. Though conflict may attract readers’ interest, it won’t hold their attention for long. Not unless readers understand the context behind the conflict and their place within it—that is, the emotional stake they have in the conflict taking place.
For readers to care what happens next in your story, they must first care about your characters. It’s your job as a writer to foster this reader-character connection, to build the bridge that encourages readers to invest in your characters’ stories.
Establishing your characters’ motivations isn’t the only way to encourage this reader-character connection, but it is a surefire way to lend context to your characters’ actions. With context in place, readers can then decide whether your characters and their journeys are worth their emotional investment.
How Motivations Act as a Characterization Tool
Motivations lend context to the action in your story by helping readers better understand who your characters are. Is the woman sneaking into the castle late at night trying to prevent an attack on the royal family, or is she the one perpetrating it?
If she is the assassin, why is she set upon killing the king and queen? Is she trying to free her people from oppression, or does she simply need the money from the hit? Or does she need the money because her people are being oppressed, thus lending complexity to her motivations?
More often than not, it’s also a character’s motivation that determines their role within a story. Is the assassin a hero worth rooting for or a villain that readers want the hero to defeat? The intent behind the assassin’s actions can make all the difference.
Notably, a character’s motivations can also reveal additional information about who they are, such as their personality and flaws (e.g. a cynical character tries to avoid intimate relationships), their values and beliefs (e.g. an honorable character strives to do what’s right despite grave danger), and key events from their past (e.g. a character who was bullied as a child strives to avoid conflict).
The Importance of Crafting Believable Motivations
In 1943, psychologist Abraham Maslow published a paper in the Psychological Review called “A Theory of Human Motivation,” in which Maslow outlines five tiers of need that drive human behavior. These tiers are more commonly known as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and can be broken down as follows:
Tier 1: Physiological Needs
Food, water, warmth, and other biological needs serve as the foundation of Maslow’s Hierarchy. With death on the line, all other needs become secondary if physiological needs are not met.
Tier 2: Safety & Security
With their biological needs secured, humans seek long-term safety in the form of financial, social, and emotional security, health, wellbeing, and freedom from fear.
Tier 3: Love & Belonging
With confidence in their long-term survival and security, humans begin to seek a sense of interpersonal wellbeing in the form of intimacy, trust, acceptance, and affection.
Tier 4: Accomplishments & Self-Esteem
Feeling secure in their sense of belonging, humans then begin to seek esteem from within (e.g. dignity, achievement, independence), and without (e.g. status, prestige, respect among peers).
Tier 5: Self-Actualization
With all physical and psychological needs met, humans at last seek to fulfill their fullest potential, especially as regards their interests and talents.
The tiers in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs aren’t wholly self-contained. However, humans will generally work to fulfill unmet physical needs before resolving psychological needs or seeking to achieve self-actualization.
Understanding Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is key to crafting realistic and compelling motivations for your characters. Conversely, a failure to understand Maslow’s Hierarchy may result in character motivations so unbelievable or ridiculous that they drive readers away from your story.
So much for a reader-character connection, right?
Suzanne Collins uses this knowledge to her advantage in The Hunger Games when Katniss and Peeta are forced to act as lovers to appease the whims of Capitol citizens despite participating in a televised fight to the death. By showcasing citizens’ interest in the teens’ romance rather than their human rights and survival, Collins highlights the ridiculousness and dangers of Capitol society.
How to Develop Your Character’s Defining Motivation…
Each of your characters’ words and deeds should be motivated by an attempt to fulfill a particular need in Maslow’s Hierarchy. As you write and revise your story, I encourage you to ask yourself why you’ve chosen to make your characters act in the way they do. Are they operating in ways that align with their established needs and characterizations? If they’re acting out of character, what unmet need(s) are they working to fulfill?
If you can’t answer either of these questions with honesty and clarity, consider revising your scene to strengthen your character’s motivation. If your characters fail to act in believable ways, then you risk the invaluable reader-character connection you’ve worked so hard to build.
While minding your characters’ motivations scene by scene is essential, the most important motivation you’ll develop for your characters is that which drives them to achieve their story goal, the main objective they’re working to attain throughout your story.
To determine this story-level motivation for each of your characters, consider the unmet need at the heart of their journey. How does this need inform your character’s story goal and their motivation to achieve it? For example…
In The Hunger Games, Katniss volunteers to take her younger sister’s place when Prim is chosen by lottery to participate in the televised fight to the death. Katniss strives to win the Games not only to ensure her own survival but to protect and provide for those she loves. (Tier 1)
In A Game of Thrones, Lord Eddard Stark accepts a position as Hand of the King out of a sense of duty to his childhood friend King Robert. But when Ned discovers that Robert’s children are not biologically his own, Ned’s sense of honor prompts him to uncover proof of Queen Cersei’s infidelity despite the danger that Cersei presents. (Tier 4)
Sometimes what your character wants is not what they need to lead a happier life. As your character grows and evolves throughout their journey, their story goal and defining motivation may evolve with them—and that’s okay! In fact, that’s indicative of a well-developed character arc.
Alternatively, not every leading character needs a clear-cut story goal, as I’ll discuss in an upcoming article here on the blog. Nevertheless, a defining motivation should still prompt your character to act in a particular way as you, the author, work to fulfill your goal for the character. For example:
In Pride and Prejudice, both Elizabeth and Darcy are driven by their (you guessed it) pride and prejudices until they come to know one another more intimately. It’s only after they recognize their follies and mutual attraction that they’re motivated to right their wrongs and find their happily-ever-after.
No matter the type of story you’re telling, know that your characters’ motivations hold the power to make or break readers’ interest. Remember, conflict means little without context. But when you allow readers to understand and sympathize with your characters’ actions, you encourage the reader-character connection that keeps readers turning pages. So tell me, writer:
How will you encourage readers to invest in your characters’ journeys?
