Who Moves You?

Motivation gives us purpose, in fiction and in reality. High achievers, strong characters, and those who break the system all have powerful motivating forces, whether it's a mission from God, a lost or missing family member, a desire for a high status, or a dislike of the status quo.

I haven't written very many complete works, but I find that my ideas don't stick to certain genres or archetypes. What motivates my characters?

The main character in my trilogy is motivated by a dislike of the status quo. She grew up dreaming of an equality that wasn't a reality. As she gets older, she's one of few who feel things aren't right, and she eventually decides to do something to change it. Along with two of the other protagonists, there's an overarching desire to prevent the further loss of family. The "antagonist," on the other hand, is motivated by an anger at what he has become.

The main character of my upcoming novel has lost his parents, his only loving support group, and seeks to learn the truth about their demise.

In a short story I'm currently planning, the character's motivation is to escape her fears.

Many of these motivations are a desire for tranquility. Perhaps that sums up all motivations, minus the desire to be supreme lord ruler.

Personally, my favorite character motivation is probably the epic journey to set things right--fighting against the status quo. They make stories of epic lengths where anything can happen, but can also be super cheesy if the character is "the one and only" for no particular reason and somehow manages to set everything straight alone. It's not a theme you see often in real life because public opinion, peer pressure, and group mentality work together to convince people that the status quo or the person with the loudest mouth is the right way. This sort of theme is present in my trilogy, but familial loss also seems to be a theme among the works I've planned.

My characters' motivations all stem directly from their personalities or, in the case of my upcoming novel and the short story, from the plot itself. I don't deliberately give a particular motivation to a character--I let my characters develop as the plot develops and vice versa. It may be unconventional, but it works for me. I let the character become a person in my mind, then I consider adding something to a character sheet.

I've realized I have a difficult time creating characters for novels (short stories are fine), but when I develop a character first, the world develops around them. Three of the characters in my trilogy and three in the novel existed in some form prior to their plot development. This is also why I'm so sure I'll be writing a romance novel using the character in my sidebar. Once I realized my repurposed characters sprouted novel and trilogy ideas like nose hair while my attempts at new characters eeked short story ideas that could possibly be stretched into novels, I decided I want to again shift through my old, unused characters and see who else can be repurposed.

I'm eager to see the diversity of motivations that arise in my future works!

Stay tuned to hear more about these characters!

Another blog prompt brought to us by Wriye.