Character Motivation: Entering a Competition and Winning It

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.

Character’s Goal (Outer Motivation): Entering and Winning a Competition

Forms This Might Take:

• A difficult business goal within a competitive firm (who has the most sales, the most clients, makes the most profit, etc.)
• A sporting event (diving, a triathlon, a soccer championship, etc.)
• A bid to beat a bizarre world record (in hot-dog eating, longest hair, glass-eating, etc.)
• A bid to beat a sporting record (in shot-put, most championship wins, longest drive in golf, etc.)
• A school science fair, robotics competition, spelling championship, etc….

Human Need Driving the Goal (Inner Motivation): Esteem and recognition

How the Character May Prepare for This Goal: 

• Making a detailed plan of what must be done to win
• Monitoring one’s health and eating habits
• Studying a particular discipline with rigor
• Take classes and attend talks…

Possible Sacrifices or Costs Associated With This Goal: 

• Losing out on family time, which could cause relationships to suffer
• Having no time for interests and hobbies…

Roadblocks Which Could Prevent This Goal from Being Achieved: 

• A health crisis
• New technology or resources that one cannot afford but one’s competition can
• An accident that causes hardship (a car fender bender that takes away one’s transport, one’s facility moving far away, causing lost time in commutes)
• A rocky marriage that requires tending to survive…

Talents & Skills That Will Help the Character Achieve This Goal:

• A Knack for Languages
• Good Listening Skills
• Gaining the Trust of Others
• ESP (Clairvoyance)
• Enhanced Hearing…

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

• Shame and guilt for letting one’s supporters down
• Struggling with self-esteem issues
• Anger and disappointment leading to rash behavior that may have far-reaching consequences (getting revenge by doing something illegal and getting caught, for example)
• Feeling lesser in some way…

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!

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