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):
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.
- A chess tournament
- Winning a special scholarship
- Being chosen for an elite program or school
- Winning a position of office (mayor, councilor, senator, etc.)
- A championship event (Indy 500, etc.)
- A neighborhood bake off, smoked meat competition, best chili, etc.
- A “Best in Show” designation on the dog (or cat) circuit
- Being chosen for a highly competitive intern position
- The top prize in an art show
- A talent competition
- An award for acting, singing, musical score, etc. in Hollywood
- Meeting a fundraising goal before someone else
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
- Working out (strength training, endurance, cardio) if it applies
- Buying optimal equipment
- Raising money (kickstarter, fundraising, etc,) to purchase what one needs
- Seeking out a mentor or trainer
- Observing one’s competition and studying their processes and strengths
- Researching one’s discipline and competitions from years’ past
- Adhering to a specific routine
- Challenging oneself to always do better
- Meditate
- Pull all-nighters to study or make sleep a priority
- Examine one’s life for time wasters and cut these out
- Hire coaches or experts to help round out one’s knowledge or to enhance a skill set
- Take classes and attend talks
- Practice obsessively
- Adopt a positive mindset and use visualization techniques that incorporate positive results
- Pit oneself against competitors to warm up and test ones skills
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
- Broken relationships with people who do not understand or support one’s goal
- Friction as family members sacrifice for one’s passion (having to move frequently, having to give up a school or job, needing to work everything around a set routine, etc.
- Children feeling unimportant or sidelined because of one’s focus on the goal
- Financial strain caused by extra expenses tied to whatever is need to win the competition
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
- Running out of money reserves
- A new competitor entering the field who is very good at what they do
- Having a sponsor back out at a critical time
- Discovering someone on one’s team is unstable (has been using drugs, is being indited for fraud, etc.)
- Discovering someone has been sharing secrets or strategies with the competition
- Having an enemy who is purposefully impeding one’s progress
- An embarrassing public mistake that damages one’s reputation with clients
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
- Enhanced Sense of Smell
- Enhanced Taste Buds
- Gaming
- Charm
- High Pain Tolerance
- Lip-Reading
- Mechanically Inclined
- Mentalism
- A Knack for Making Money
- Multitasking
- Organization
- Photographic Memory
- Promotion
- Reading People
- Strategic Thinking
- Super Strength
- Swift-footedness
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
- Refusing to go after a satisfying goal again if it is a challenge
- Underachieving to avoid being hurt again
- Giving up on one’s dream or a career due to the loss
Click here for a list of our current entries for this thesaurus, along with a master post containing information on the individual fields.
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.
Oh man, I’m saving this. My wife and I were just speaking ad nauseum about my needing to develop characters better (I often drop characters into situations, not the other way around). Definitely going to be using this.
Very glad to hear this will help you! 🙂
So glad this one is helpful 🙂
Great posts every time
Great goal, Angela!
This post is more in my “wheel house” than you could know! 😀 LOVE it! 😀 😀 😀