by Liz Johnson, @lizjohnsonbooks
What does your character want?
It seems an innocuous enough question, but the truth is that it’s one of the most important ones a writer has to ask. If you answer it correctly, it’ll help you tell your whole story.
Ray Bradbury said, “First, find out what your hero wants. Then just follow him.” That’s the crux of your story. Without a goal, your character has nothing to do but twiddle his thumbs. His world is just fine. He doesn’t want or need change. He’s on no journey. And without his goal, you have no story.
Your character should have a strong desire at the beginning of your story, and he should always be working toward it in some way. He wants something very, very much. What is it?
To go home.
To kill the beast.
To stop the crime.
To solve the mystery.
To get a date.
To rescue the girl.
To rescue himself.
The goal must be concrete. And it has to have a physical manifestation. If it doesn’t, it’s not concrete enough to drive your character.
I love Randy Ingermanson’s example of this. He asks what every Miss America contestant wants: World peace, of course. But that’s an abstract, nebulous concept. Who or what defines the achievement of world peace? However, if Miss America says, “We’ll have world peace when all nuclear weapons are abolished,” now we know what her concrete goal is. Specifics not only help your character come alive, they help you keep the story heading in the right direction.
When the goal is clear, the track may not be straight, but at least you’ll know where the finish line is.
Once the goal is clear, we have to ask another question, that is equally as important. Why does he want it what he wants? What’s his motivation?
What does goal and motivation look like in action?
In the movie While You Were Sleeping, Lucy is an L train worker with no family. When she rescues her crush Peter from an oncoming train, his family mistakes her for his fiancée while he’s in a coma.
Lucy’s goal was to marry Peter, who came through her train stall every day. Why? Because she wants to have a family. She longs to belong to a family unit, something she hasn’t had since she was very young.
*1995 Spoiler Alert* Lucy doesn’t get her original goal. She ends up falling for Peter’s brother Jack and marries him in the end. But the story is satisfying because she has pursued her goal until she realizes that it isn’t what she really wants. And she still gets her deepest desire, what has motivated her all along—to belong to a family.
Main characters aren’t the only characters that should have goals. Let’s take Gaston from Beauty and Beast as an example. The antagonist has a very clear goal that drives everything he does in the story. From trying to have Belle’s dad put into an asylum to fighting the Beast. All of that is toward one goal. What’s that goal? Marrying Belle.
He says early on that he wants to marry Belle because she’s the prettiest girl in town, and that makes her the best, and doesn’t he deserve the best? And there’s his motivation. It’s pride.
Not every motivation is pure. Not every character is wholesome. But that doesn’t make the character invalid or unrelatable. In fact, sometimes the flawed motivations are the ones readers understand the most.
Here are a few tips for identifying your characters’ goals:
- Keep it specific. Getting from point A to B isn’t enough. Getting from New York to LA to stop your ex-boyfriend’s wedding because you might still love him is.
- Identify a tangible manifestation. To be happy is not clear enough. To fall in love is again too broad. Who do they want to marry? How does that love manifest itself?
- Keep it universal. Make sure that your character’s goal appeals to a broad audience, not just a niche.
- Make it distant. Make your character have to work for it. Yet keep it attainable. An unattainable goal is no fun for the writer or the reader. No one wants to read about someone who never had a chance.
Without strong goals and clear motivation, your characters will fall flat, and your readers will struggle to connect with them. But with the right goals, your characters and story will come alive.
Fifteen years after she left Prince Edward Island, Natalie O’Ryan had no plans to return. But when her fiancé, music producer Russell Jacobs, books their wedding in her hometown and schedules a summer at Rose’s Red Door Inn, she sets out to put the finishing touches on the perfect wedding. But she can’t possibly prepare for a run-in with Justin Kane–the best friend she left behind all those years ago after promising to stay.
Justin’s never forgotten Natalie or the music career he always dreamed of pursuing. He’d been prepared to follow her off the island until his dad died and he was left to run the family dairy farm. He’s done the best he can with the life that was thrust upon him–but with Natalie back in the picture, he begins to realize just how much joy he’s been missing.
After Natalie’s reception venue falls through, she must scramble to find an alternative, and the only option seems to be a barn on Justin’s property. As they work together to get the dilapidated building ready for the party, Natalie and Justin discover the groundwork for forgiveness–and that there may be more than an old friendship between them.
By day Liz Johnson is the director of marketing for a Christian radio network. She makes time to write late at night—that’s when she thinks best anyway. Liz is the author of more than a dozen novels, a New York Times bestselling novella, and a handful of short stories. Her book The Red Door Inn was a Christy Award finalist, and she’s also a two-time ACFW Carol Award finalist. She makes her home in Tucson, Arizona, where she enjoys exploring local theater and doting on her nieces and nephews. She writes stories of true love filled with heart, humor, and happily ever afters. You can find her online at lizjohnsonbooks.com or on her Facebook page at Facebook.com/lizjohnsonbooks.