What Does X Want?

 

 

Constructing characters that you feel you know is essential to constructing characters that the reader feels she or he knows. Just as it is in life, we often feel we know characters in director proportion to the amount of information we have about them, thus it is often advised that writers put together a dossier or portfolio or resume of a character who is being created. In these dossiers would be such items as: physical description, age, religious affiliation, parents, number of siblings, habits, pet peeves, wardrobe and props, favorite sayings, favorite books and records and movies, interests and passions and clubs and friends.

 

But I think the most important decision (or discovery) to make concerning a character is this: what does X want? 

 

Though the same holds true in novels, particularly in short stories where the scope is limited, often characters are actually rather one-dimensional in respect to the primary motivation that moves them to action.

 

Some typical primary urges or motivations:

1.     “As God is my witness, I’ll never be poor again.”

2.     More than anything else I want to be free of:

·        This dad-blamed country

·        This hick town

·        This wretched family

·        This terrible relationship

·        This destructive addiction

 

3.     More than anything else I want:

·        to feel secure

·        to get out of my rut and find a really exciting adventure

·        to find a loving mate

·        to have at least one good friend

·        to be respected

·        to get over my grief about losing X

 

Naturally, there are other motives not on this list. And, too, often you’re led to wonder to what extent the character is aware that this thing is what moves him or her forward. Sometimes the point is that the character is led to discover this during the course of the story.

 

But the point here is: if you can determine the primary motive, the story will then follow from it quite naturally.