Character Motivation Entry: Righting A Deep Wrong

What does your character want? This is an important question to answer because it determines what your protagonist hopes to achieve by the story’s end. If the goal, or outer motivation, is written well, readers will identify fairly quickly what the overall story goal’s going to be and they’ll know what to root for. But how do you know what outer motivation to choose?

If you read enough books, you’ll see the same goals being used for different characters in new scenarios. This thesaurus explores common outer motivations so you can see your options and what those goals might look like on a deeper level.

Goal (Outer Motivation): 
Righting a Deep Wrong

Forms This Might Take: There are many types of injustices that may resonate with your character based on their personality, ties to the past, their experience with marginalized groups or people, exposure to different parts of the world and the challenges there, or to causes and beliefs they hold dear.  Possible examples might include

• advocacy for animals or natural resources
• advocacy for a group of people who have suffered mistreatment…

Human Need Driving the Goal (Inner Motivation): Self-Actualization

How the Character May Prepare for This Goal: 

• Soul searching to try and figure out how they can help the situation
• Traveling to study the problem and collect data or witness the results of unchecked abuse first hand
• Taking action to protect a person, place, or thing that is in immediate danger…

Possible Sacrifices or Costs Associated With This Goal: 

• Damaged relationships with family and friends who don’t understand or agree with the mission
• Financial hardship as the character uses their own money to pay for studies, tests, infrastructure, travel, etc.
• The character losing their job due to too much time away or a decrease in efficiency due to distraction and lack of motivation
• The character’s health deteriorating due to stress or testing their physical limits…

Roadblocks Which Could Prevent This Goal from Being Achieved: 

• Corrupt governments and officials
• Powerful and wealthy corporations with an invested interest in silencing the character and maintaining the status quo
• Bureaucratic red tape
• Witnesses or victims who are intimidated into staying silent…

Talents & Skills That Will Help the Character Achieve This Goal: Good Listening Skills, Blending In, Empathy…

Possible Fallout For the Protagonist if This Goal Is Not Met:

• Disillusionment with society as a whole
• Disappointment in themselves
• Self-loathing (if the character was personally responsible for and unable to fix the damage)…

Clichés to Avoid: A straightforward struggle to win against an adversary (a corporation, a government agency, society’s beliefs, etc.). The reality with any situation of injustice…

We hope you’ve found this sample useful. To access the complete entry and our full range of thesauruses, head over to One Stop for Writers.

What does your character want, and how far will they go to achieve it?

On the surface, the protagonist’s goal seems to be the most important, but the inner motivation driving your character toward this goal (despite pain, suffering, fear, setbacks, and sacrifice) is what really draws readers in. Understanding the four cornerstones of character arc and how they frame a story is paramount for today’s writers. To help with this, we have integrated this Character Motivation Thesaurus into our online library at One Stop For Writers.

Each entry has been enhanced to provide even more information about your character’s motivation and is cross-referenced with our other thesauruses for easy searchability. We’ve also included a must-see tutorial on Character Motivation.

Interested in seeing these expanded entries? Head on over and take advantage of our FREE TRIAL!SaveSave