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): Being a Leader
Forms This Might Take:
- Becoming a mayor, senator, premier, president, or prime minister
- Leading the charge for a social initiative, group, or organization
- Taking the lead position of a non-profit organization
- Being a CEO
- Leading a minimized group to promote equity and awareness…
Human Need Driving the Goal (Inner Motivation): Self-Actualization
How the Character May Prepare for This Goal:
- Obtaining a mentor
- Rallying support to run for office or vouch for their own strengths (if needed)
- Owning their mistakes and learning from them
- Understanding that collaboration and showing respect are important aspects of governance or leadership at any level…
Possible Sacrifices or Costs Associated With This Goal:
- Being overworked and over-stressed
- Being held accountable when things go wrong
- A poor work and home life balance
- Having little to no time for hobbies and interests…
Roadblocks Which Could Prevent This Goal from Being Achieved:
- Skeletons coming out of the closet and damaging the character’s reputation (an affair, taking a bribe, a video that casts them in an unfavorable light, etc.)
- An addiction that causes them to be unreliable and irritable
- Competition from someone who is equally as suited for the position
- A lack of skills or experience in a critical area…
Talents & Skills That Will Help the Character Achieve This Goal:
Possible Fallout For the Protagonist if This Goal Is Not Met:
- The disappointment of losing and letting their supporters down
- Being unable to affect change at the leadership level…
Clichés to Avoid:
- The power-motivated candidate for leadership who is completely unsuited for the position yet somehow ends up in the running…
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!
Angela is a writing coach, international speaker, and bestselling author who loves to travel, teach, empower writers, and pay-it-forward. She also is a founder of One Stop For Writers, a portal to powerful, innovative tools to help writers elevate their storytelling.
Brilliant tips!! Thank you so much! I will definitely be applying these when building my main character
Terrific–so glad this is a help!
Why should we avoid the first two cliché since they have happened in real life and that art/literature imitates life? Eventually authors and artist will replicate and exaggerate what has happened.
We should avoid the cliches as a wash-and-repeat (coping the scenario exactly) because they happen so often. BUT, this doesn’t mean you can write this scenario at all–it just means we need to put some extra work in to “twist” the cliche, and add greater depth and complication to the idea. Make sense? Then it’s no longer a cliche, but something fresh and new.
Yet another fanTABulous entry, Angela 🙂 Thank you!
And you know, some images speak volumes. I’m a big chess fan and this image was an immediate draw for me 🙂 But what I like most is that this depicts the dispensable (yet often very powerful) pawn as king 😀
I felt the same way Donna, and i loved the symbolism. I had to go with this picture!
My character finds herself thrust into this role without being ready or knowing how to do so.
I think this is very common, and a good arc because it allow s the character to discover inner strengths they may not have been aware of. 🙂