Storytelling Motivations

When people talk about motivation and writing, they’re often talking about the motivation to get writing, or to finish a book, or to craft that query. But motivation in your actual story can be the most important writing-related motivation of all.

Often, when I’m having trouble with a story or a character, it’s because of something to do with motivation. Think about it it—at the heart of every story is a motivation, right? In other words, a reason your characters are doing what they’re doing. It’s when two sets of people have two opposing sets of motivations that conflict occurs, and voila, a plot happens!

Of course, it’s not that simple, but it’s a handy way of thinking about it. Lack of proper motivation can result in lack of believability (but why does James HAVE to strike out into the wilderness? He’s got a perfectly comfortable log cabin to spend the night in!), un-exciting stakes (okay, so Lucy is sneaking out of her room for a cookie...and if she fails...she, um, doesn’t get the cookie), and a whole host of other problems. 

outside of a picture book, generally insufficient motivation 

Outlining the different sets of motivations that make up your story can help you work out a part you’re stuck on and also, if you’re already done with said story, help you write your query letter. In both cases, you’re basically asking yourself the Big Question: what does your main character want? In some cases, if the thing that’s wanted isn’t self-explanatory on this front, you then need to follow up with: Why does s/he want it so bad?

For example, “Danny wants to save his mother from dying” is pretty self-explanatory. But “Danny wants to slay the dragon” is a little less so because we can then ask, “Why does Danny want to slay the dragon so badly? It could eat him!” 

Or maybe they'd rather be friends! Maybe the dragon's cute!

Of course, characters can have a myriad of complex motivations. Even something like “Danny wants to slay the dragon because it has cast a spell on his mother that will kill her unless he slays the dragon first” can be made more complex by “The reason Danny needs so badly to save his mother (other than the fact, of course, that she’s his mother) is because he dreams of becoming a shoe-maker and if his mother were to die, he’d have to give up his shoe-making dreams to tend cows in order to support his ten little siblings. Or something like that.”

The point is, the character’s motivation needs to be so strong that it matches whatever opposing motivation is getting in his way. In this case, that motivation would be, of course, the dragon’s understandably strong motivation to stay alive (perhaps he’s even got a dragon-lady love he needs to woo or something. Who knows?). This motivation vs motivation thing doesn’t always work—say the “opposing force” is a storm or something, but again, it’s a simplification.

So what was I saying about using this for query writing? Well, thinking of your story in terms of motivations is a great way to simplify it enough to contain it in a query. Danny wants what? Why does it want it so badly? Who/what’s getting in the way? Why?

If you can’t figure out the motivations in your story, or if they don’t make sense (your characters really don’t have enough reason to be doing what they’re doing), then that could end up being a big problem. And it might be the reason you’re having trouble writing said story, if you’re having trouble. 

What do you think? Do you ever consider your own stories in terms of motivations? Can you think of any books that can’t be described in this manner?