Hello again writers! It’s Monday, and that means we’re back with more Being a Better Writer! Today’s topic is simple and straightforward enough, as you probably guessed by seeing the title, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a useful reminder for those of you who already have a grasp on it. And if it’s something you’ve put thought into before or you’re a new writer who has spent time wondering about it, then well today is your lucky day.

Now, before we dive into things, I do want to remind everyone that Being a Better Writer currently has a Topic Call open at this link. If there’s a writing topic you would like to see covered in a future installment of Being a Better Writer, then hit that link really quick and leave a comment! Topic List #23 will be populated soon enough, but it’s always preferable to have some direct requests from readers in the pipeline!

And with that, I’m going to forgo any other news related items (it’s all stuff like “progress continues on Axtara – Magic and Mayhem” and “Axtara and the UNSEC Trilogy continue to battle for first place in sales”) and just dive right into our topic of discussion today. Which, as you can see from the title above, is character drive and motivation.

Okay, now look: I know a number of you are looking at this and thinking “Do I really need a post on that?” And you’re probably not wrong. For some, character drive and motivation comes easy, and isn’t hard to pin down.

But not everyone has the same experience. There are writers out there, sometimes young, sometimes not, who struggle with giving their characters motivation. I’ve read stories from writers, in fact, who when asked about the motivation for their character, answered with what was, effectively, “Well, their motivation is to be there. The plot is happening, and they’re stuck in it.” Which isn’t really an answer, not really, inasmuch as is a cry for help on the part of their character. If the only motivation your character has is “exist, and the story will drag you along” well … That’s not really a motivation. That’s more a sensation of apathy being towed by a plot.

To be fair, however, if our aim is a plot-drive story where the characters are of secondary importance, this will absolutely be the kind of character drive your story ends up with. Because the characters aren’t really that important by contrast to the plot of said book, and will get towed along whatever direction the book wants to go.

Which is a topic we’ve discussed before here on BaBW, but so long ago I couldn’t even find the article with a search. Another day, then. But this concept of a story being driven by events of the plot rather than the characters isn’t new. Sands, I spent time on a few Sci-Fi subreddits (and a few fantasy) and one of the quiet debates that has sprung up on one of them recently began with the observation that many of the most recommended Sci-Fi works on the sub had little to no character at all, the characters serving as empty mouthpieces to move a plot forward regardless of the logic of their own involvement.

This begat a quiet debate, with many arguing that the best Sci-Fi stories didn’t and shouldn’t have developed characters or character-driven plots because “Sci-Fi is all about the ideas, not the characters.”

Personally, I disagree, and if you’ve read Colony or any of my other Sci-Fi works, you know that. I believe character and story can go hand in hand. But not everyone does. Which, I believe. may be why some young writers struggle with character motivation. Even if they want to include it, if a wide span of their reading by some unfortunate coincidence those stories that do not value or place emphasis on character motivation, it can be hard to see how to make it work, or even ways to slide it into the concept they have in mind. Or perhaps even if they want to see it in their story, they’re laboring under the belief that a story shouldn’t have characters with motivation and drive pushing things forward.

Yikes, this preamble is getting massive. Hit the jump before too much of our article is on the front page, and let’s talk more about the act of character motivation.

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Okay, so let’s start with something basic. I mean really basic. Let’s ask ourselves a question: what is character motivation?

Well, in our title above, I reference character drive and motivation. Because at it’s core, I think the term “drive” works really well to help guide writers toward what motivates their characters. Because it’s one thing to ask “What is my character’s motivation?” It sounds a little pretentious perhaps, and for some people an immediate blank is drawn. For others, they’ll think of wants the character has, but won’t let that influence the story.

But drive? Drive implies action. A course, a sense of direction. When one is driving a car, they aren’t just being reactive. They are going somewhere.

This is the crux of character motivation, and why I like to use the term “drive” in conjunction with it. Because I’ve read stories where characters are passive, because their “motivation” was something simple and understandable, but it was also just a “motivation.” An excuse or a justification to have the character somewhat follow along with the plot. Scientist Kai wants to know about aliens, so when the observatory station he works for experiences first contact, he is dragged along for the story.

Yes, that character has motivation. But that’s about it. The motivation is an excuse to drag the character into the plot. But when we start thinking about driving a plot? What if we make that character’s justification an element of drive? Well, instead we get this:

Scientist Kai wants to know about aliens, so when the observatory station he works for experiences first contact, Kai immediately volunteers to be part of the project.

That’s a bit different, isn’t it? In the first example, the character has motivation (wants to know about aliens) but it’s only used as an excuse to have the character there while plot happens. In the second, the character is being driven by that motivation, and so they take an active hand in making the plot happen.

Motivation then, is just something a character wants. Something that they desire. There are basic motivations, like food, or shelter, or relaxation (for more on that angle, check out our post on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs). There are more advanced motivations, like care for family, or a desire for achievement, or even revenge.

However, motivations are just flavor unless paired with drive to achieve those things they are motivated toward.

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This is where a number of stories that struggle with character motivation get things wrong, I think. I’ve seen young writers (and some experienced) craft stories in which a character has a motivation, sometimes several. To craft an example rather than specify a real one, let’s say it’s a story about a character who ends up journeying through a fairy hill. Their “motivation” might be “I want to recover a sibling taken by the fey.” But that motivation can very literally be a bullet point that is really just an excuse for the journey unless the character acts on that desire to save their sibling.

Have I read stories where a character never acts on their motivation outside of stating it and then proceeds to be drug through the story entirely by external elements? Yes I have. Many times. This issue is a real one. Writers that set up a motivation for a character because “Well, a character needs to have motivation, right?” but then never actually deliver the character doing anything with that motivation. To wit, the character they write is a bit like a child who wakes up in the morning and wants breakfast: They might desire breakfast, but they may never state such outside of at the very beginning of the day, and then their drive and motivation may be “play with toys until someone feeds me.”

That may seem like an oversimplification to some (and there are definitely gradients here) but it’s an example that I can recall seeing while reading published works with no real character drive, just statements of “I want this” while letting the plot carry the character along for the ride.

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Okay, so why does this problem crop up? What’s causing these characters to be empty shells of stated motivation with little to show for it? Well, I see the issue as having two primary causes.

The first is that while many writing courses and secondhand sources will tell young writers “Your characters need to have motivation!” few actually go a step further and tell those same writers to apply that motivation to the story. It may sound odd to some of you, but there are people whose writing education begins and ends with “motivation is a check mark that must exist” but have no education or teaching in actually applying that motivation to the story. Without that education, when they sit down to craft a story and characters they give those characters things that they want, but they’re treated like hair color or height: Basic details that are given to the reader to help them envision a character, not as something that has an effect on the story outside of the trivial.

The second cause of motivation being an empty line on a character bio is that many writers, when faced with a character who does have drive and acts for that drive accordingly, discover that this character begins driving the story, and sometimes in directions they didn’t want the story to go.

Take our example above with Scientist Kai. Perhaps the writer wants a story about communication being established. Kai is there to be a passive vehicle for the reader to see a story about first contact figuring out how to talk. To observe for the reader, so they can see this tale about two sides learning to talk to one another. Kai’s job is to be present but not participate past what the story demands he do to tell that story.

But then we give Kai drive. And suddenly, the story’s reins are in his hands as well as the authors. And he doesn’t want to sit back and watch unless the story. He wants to talk to the aliens. So he starts pushing things forward, and in the direction he wants to go, and starts showing the aliens his favorite TV show. Unfortunately, this shatters the nuanced plot the author had in mind to pieces as now the aliens are learning things that were never in the original script.

The author is at a crossroads, and, in line with our example of the issue this is, chooses to remove Kai’s ability to act on the plot in order to get the story back in line with their vision.

This happens. Sometimes people call it characters having an “idiot ball” or “just being passive,” but it happens. Writers, scared that the story won’t end up identical to the one in their head, strip away the characters’ ability to make choices and act on their motivations. Thus preserving the story they had in mind … but also depriving their characters of drive.

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Naturally, there are ways to avoid these two issues, but they come with some required understanding of the writing process, as well as a needed look as what it is you as an author want to accomplish. As noted at the start of this post, there are a host of people who do not care about character or character motivation, as they see characters as a means to present ideas and concepts, not to tell a story. They are there to experience a story, not be part of a story.

This is a viable option. An audience exists for that. You can strip all motivation from your characters save a line or two that’s effectively window-dressing and write a story that still sells to a wide array of people. This is an option, and I would be remiss if I didn’t note that.

However, that audience is far from the only audience, and there exists a wide array of readers who do want to see character accounted for in story. Who want those characters to exhibit motivation as more than just a line on a slip of paper, but show initiative and drive to push the story forward.

For those who want that—or at least want to see how to avoid falling into the two common issues above—I do want to break down some ways to get out of those habits if you’re caught in them.

With the first, (application), the next step is pretty simple. Once you have built your characters and given them motivation, you need to let that motivation have drive in the story. A character can’t just say “I want this” and then never do anything for it (or worse, have the story deliver it to them after a series of unrelated events), they need to act as if that motivation is important and real to them. They need to work for it! Make progress! Suffer setbacks!

Realize that motivation isn’t just a line on a character sheet, but should be a driving force for what pushes your character into and through the plot!

Now, to the second, this one is a bit trickier, because if your character is changing up the planned plot because of their motivations it comes down to one of three “solutions” to bring things back in line: Change the plot, change the motivations, or strip the drive out.

All of these are pretty self-explanatory. Changing the plot means rewriting the plan so that the character’s actions take it in a new, but planned, direction. Changing the motivations is rewriting the character so that they will give you the plot you wanted. And stripping the drive out is removing their active motivation and making them a vehicle to view the plot by.

Me? I prefer not solving this one, which is a fourth approach. To step back, let the character act as they will, and see if the deviations will still fit in with the plan, or if the whole plot will change, or if I can have another character or element keep things on track with the overall plan despite the current shifts in course.

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Ultimately, then, the choice is yours as to whether or not you want to let your character motivations be more than just a line on a page, or something simplistic like “My character wants to stay alive” (I’ve seen some astonishingly low-effort motivations before, many of which were really just justifications for a character to follow the plot). As I’ve noted, there are audiences that don’t care for or even want characters to have drive and objective.

But even if you are going to write for those, I think at least understanding and gaining a decent mastery over the opposite—IE characters having motivation and acting on it with drive—is a useful skill to have. If you’ve been struggling with motivation for your characters, I hope that this post aided you in some way, either in linking their motivation back to the story or in letting that motivation drive more of the story.

Good luck. Now get writing.

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