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. Through this thesaurus, we’d like to explore these common outer motivations so you can see your options and what those goals might look like on a deeper level.
We hope the sample list of ideas below helps you better understand how your character’s motivation drives the story. For a much more detailed entry, follow this link to the official Character Motivation Thesaurus.
Character’s Goal (Outer Motivation): Escape Certain Death
Forms This Might Take:
- Being in an apartment building that catches on fire
- Being imprisoned by someone (a serial killer, terrorists, kidnappers) who has no intent of letting one live
- Suffering torture that is growing increasingly violent
- Being grievously wounded and in need of medical help to survive
- Being in the path of a destructive element (a forest fire, flood, tornado, nuclear fallout, etc.)
- …
Human Need Driving the Goal (Inner Motivation): physiological needs
How the Character May Prepare for This Goal:
- Track the movements of one’s captors or gatekeepers
- Assess the weaknesses of others, or a location one is being held at
- Lying in order to gain support or obtain a measure of power or control
- Obtain a map of the area
- Push one’s body to the limits (traveling in extreme heat or cold, resisting fatigue, etc.)
- …
Possible Sacrifices or Costs Associated With This Goal:
- Being maimed, scarred, or disfigured during one’s escape
- Having one’s health compromised in the escape to the point where one is never the same
- Becoming jaded by humanity based on horrors one witnesses during the plight
- Revealing a secret or closely guarded information in order to escape, knowing it will have difficult repercussions later
- …
Roadblocks Which Could Prevent This Goal from Being Achieved:
- Too many guards and no opportunity to escape
- Being secured in some way (handcuffed, bound in rope, secured to other people, etc.)
- Being in a place where movement is restricted (being locked in a trunk, getting stuck in a tunnel collapse, etc.)
- Running out of clean air, water, or food
- …
Talents & Skills That Will Help the Character Achieve This Goal:
Possible Fallout For the Protagonist if This Goal Is Not Met:
- Death
Clichés to Avoid:
- Guards who get drunk, allowing one to escape
- Guards who put down their weapons in order to take advantage of the character (sexually, or to beat them up, etc.)
- …
Click here to return to the list of sample entries for this thesaurus, along with a master post containing information on the individual fields.
What does your character want more than anything else and what is he willing to do 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 our popular 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 character motivation 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.
Hi Angela: This Resource (Character Thesaurus) sounds amazing. I couldn’t locate it. When will it be available? Thanks Mary
Hi Mary,
It is only on our blog right now, so if you go to the bottom of any current Character Motivation entry, you’ll find a link. Also, you can find the list here: https://writershelpingwriters.net/character-motivation-thesaurus/
Thanks Angela. I’m hoping that this becomes a printed Work. You and those associated with the Mission of helping Writers are fantastic Educators! Thanks for all that you and the others do.
A lot of work went into this – very well done. 😀 Thank you.
Thanks! I hope you find it helpful. 🙂
I have been reading a manga called The Promised Neverland. Where children of the Grace Field House orphanage have their happy lives upended when they find out they’re being raised to be fed to demons. Most of what is listed in this entry is used in the manga. The children are raised to be very intelligent with daily test which the children think is a game because the demons eat only their brains.
That sounds like a very interesting storyline!
I remember when I first started posting on Absolute Write back in the day, getting asked this question after posting a query for critique. I struggled soooo hard to figure out what my character actually wanted. Thankfully since then I’ve entirely rewritten the novel in question, and the immediate motive is clearer from the outset. Of course, this motive will change over the course of the novel, so I still have that question to consider overall. 😉
Trisha that is great you figured it out, and yes you are right, while avoiding death is a big motivation, in some stories it is a temporary one. I hope the more you think about the character’s missing need, the clearer the other motivation becomes.
A powerful motivator in fiction (and life)!
So true!