Character Motivation Thesaurus Entry: Pursuing Justice

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): Pursuing Justice

Forms This Might Take: 

• Winning a court case so the character can prove themselves or their client innocent
• Enacting a law that will provide equality for a group of people
• Changing the status quo (in a country, school, organization, etc.) in way that brings about justice for someone…

Human Need Driving the Goal (Inner Motivation): Love and Belonging, Self-Actualization

How the Character May Prepare for This Goal: 

• The character inserting themselves (to some degree) into the oppressed group to get a feel for what they’re going through
• Looking for allies within the oppressed group who are willing to go public
• Finding external allies who are in a specific position to help (doctors, judges, lawyers, government officials, celebrities, experts in a field, etc.)
• Educating the people (if necessary) on the situation and what they can do to stand up for themselves…

Possible Sacrifices or Costs Associated With This Goal: 

• Being harmed (physically, financially, etc.) by those who don’t want the status quo to change
• Strained relations with family members who are being threatened or attacked due to the character’s involvement
• Losing friends who don’t agree that injustice is happening and don’t support the character’s goal…

Roadblocks Which Could Prevent This Goal from Being Achieved: 

• Powerful people or organizations who are deliberately oppressing the group for their own gain
• Legislature and bureaucratic red tape that make change difficult
• Ignorance or denial among the public…

Talents & Skills That Will Help the Character Achieve This Goal: A Knack for Languages, Good Listening Skills, Gaining the Trust of Others…

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

• Oppression and possibly loss of life for the people they’re fighting for
• A lack of meaning in their own life
• Substance abuse (due to guilt or wanting to dull the knowledge that people are continuing to be oppressed)…

Clichés to Avoid: The crusader who sacrifices everything (health, finances, family) but is unable to overcome the opposition and ends up penniless and alone…

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!