Three Easy Steps to Generate a Goal Using Fear as Motivation

There’s so much emphasis on making sure that we give our character a goal that’s clear starting from their very first scene. Win the game. Find someone to marry. Land the job. Solve the crime.

We tend to think about goal in terms of the character obtaining the thing they don’t have when the story begins. It’s out there. They can grab it, touch it, and get it if they just do the right things and keep going.

But what if you’re like me and so many of my clients, completely unsure of what your character wants, much less why? What if they’re not an athlete, or in a personal crisis, or craving revenge right out of the gate? What if there isn’t a big mystery to solve starting in your first scene?

Cue creative crisis!

If our character isn’t trying to land a record deal or catch a killer or get some other obvious, tangible thing they don’t currently have, does this mean our story is a total bust?

No.

We’ve just been looking at this elusive concept of goal and motivation all wrong. In fact, I’m here to argue the opposite. That starting from a point of fear—losing something the character already has—can be every bit as motivational and arguably more compelling than starting out with a precise goal of obtaining something they don’t have.

How Can You Mine Your Character’s Preexisting Fear in Order To Give Rise to a Goal In 3 Simple Steps?

Consider What Your Character Currently Has in The Novel’s Opening That They Value.

What does your character cling to, possibly (and likely!) to their own detriment? Is it the approval of someone else, the need to control some uncontrollable aspect of their life? An unhealthy role they play largely to the benefit of another character? What do they care for and how can we see it through what they say and do? What do they believe they must continue doing behavior-wise, or what can’t they imagine living without? Again, focus on what they already have in their lives, well before page one.

For example, in Suzanne Collins’ THE HUNGER GAMES, we meet Katniss as being attached to her younger sister Prim. Katniss is committed to this role of providing for and protecting Prim, and it’s clear that while she loves her, it’s almost to Katniss’ own detriment. Her life seems to revolve around caring for Prim and trying to keep her safe in all forms. Is Katniss even remotely thinking of having something for herself, much less winning the Hunger Games as a goal? No. Her goal is to keep the status quo. This might be the same for your character, whatever their status quo is.

Plan An Event—An Inciting Incident—That Threatens That Valuable Person or Thing.

What might happen to this person or thing your character clings to? Does the person they seek approval from reject them somehow? Does someone new come along and shift the existing dynamic? Is that person or thing your character clings to threatened in some way by an outside force? Does your character lose control of something they thought they had control over? Is their ability to continue to fulfill their unhealthy role compromised?

Returning to Suzanne Collins’ THE HUNGER GAMES, this would be where Prim’s name gets drawn to be a tribute in the Hunger Games—a government-run, fight-to-the-death event where it’s very unlikely Prim will survive. The author directly threatens that unhealthy role Katniss has that’s fueled by the fear of losing her sister, or perhaps being a failure in protecting her. This event directly hits what matters to Katniss. It’s something she already has, and Collins mines Katniss’ fear to force the birth of a new external goal.

Focus On the Logical Outward Act/Choice Your Character Would Then Take, Fueled By Their Original Fear In Point 1 Above.

Even though the event you plan should give birth to a clearer external goal—yay!—it’s important to note that their original fear is in play in whatever choice they make as a result. In other words, whatever the goal may now be, it’s wrongly motivated.

So while it seems bold and pivotal that Katniss volunteers herself in her sister’s place in THE HUNGER GAMES, in all actuality, she is still acting out of her original fear. The same fear as the one we observed on page one. She only forms the goal of winning the games in order to protect her sister (the original fear). To try and control Prim’s safety. But even though her motivation is still driven by a detrimental, unrealistic role (a misbelief), it’s enough to get Katniss out the door with an external goal—one we didn’t have in the very beginning. She is now set up for the external objective of winning the Hunger Games so she can come back home and (so she thinks) keep protecting Prim.

If you’re in the first quarter of your draft, all the guidance I’ve offered might help you to generate a clearer goal for your character by dealing a blow to something they already value. But it’s important to remember that the character’s motivation needs to reflect their initial fear, or misbelief, until the 25% mark (Point of No Return). At that point, the motivation will then shift away from their old fear, letting it go, and replacing it with a different fear—not attaining what they actually need—even if the external goal stays the same.

In other words, at that first-quarter mark, your character’s external goal may or may not change after the Point of No Return. Katniss continues to want to win the Hunger Games for the length of the story. But the fear fueling the why changes.

The motivation of what your character is scared to lose evolves so that around 25%, they must choose to let go of what they initially feared losing, and instead, go after something representative of a bigger loss should they not attain it. A fear that outweighs the fear they had in the beginning. And oftentimes, that fear can be facing, wrestling, and coming to terms with a hard truth related to that initial fear.

In Katniss’ case, she starts to see there isn’t any safety for her sister within their wider dystopian world, regardless of what Katniss tries to do. She has to let go of that protective role and risk dying in order to face a bigger fear—a world like the one they live in. Her motivation pivots toward impacting the larger world conflict in hopes that she can make it better for many more people.

What does your character fear losing when we meet them? If they don’t yet have a clear external goal, what could happen that might threaten their ability to avoid that fear? Does the decision they make then give rise to a concrete goal, still driven by their attempt to avoid their fear? At the Point of No Return, are you able to stick with the same external goal but fuel it by another healthier fear? Or, does your character’s goal change to reflect the fear of losing what they truly needed all along?

Happy writing!