Character Goals and Motivations (Writing Advice)

[@blueseaturtle6031]

Goal - What a character wants - Something tangible that can be obtained - Example: money, love, family reunion ect Goals themselves aren’t interesting enough, what makes them interesting is the motivation behind them Motivation - Why does the character pursue their goals - Emotional reason - Why should my audience care - Aiming to achieve an emotional state “I’ll be happy if… happens” Example: Situation, I am stranded on an abandoned island Goal, I want to survive and escape this lonesome island Motivation, I want to see my son once more Hero goals vs villain goals - Do they want the same goal or are they different ( if they are different, find some way to connect them) - There should be some sort of connection between the hero’s and villain goals - What are the emotional reasons behind their goals (fuel to the fire) 4 stages of motivation 1. Goal (what) 2. Motivation (why) 3. Deep dark belief ( something that haunts them to this day) 4. Origin of the deep dark belief (cause and effect, what happened to cause the deep dark belief) Example: Goal, I want to lose weight Motivation, Because I look fat Deep dark belief, fat people don’t look attractive Origin of deep dark belief, Seeing that all the skinny girls in my class get most of the attention It’s the fuel to the fire, the more abundance of fuel, the brighter the fire will burn

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Thanks again for doing this!

[@WriteHollyDavis]

I love the idea of the villian and hero having the exact same goal like in Rocky. Great examples and great video!

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Thanks!

[@bananian]

I actually like asymmetric goals and power dynamics that places the MC at a constant disadvantage.

[@WriteHollyDavis]

​@@bananian it's good to read about both! I don't see enough of the same goal in the books I read so it was refreshing to hear!

[@dianasaurstudio]

Great video as always! I'm getting schooled by your videos and learning lots. My story "Nap Quest" has the main character Edwin, who's surface level goal is to just be unbothered and take naps, but he's always getting interrupted. His society tells him that he can only climb up one "social ladder" and he believes he's failed at that. His deep goal is to figure out what he's good at, and learn to make friends again, despite having lost them around the time he lost faith in his abilities.

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Awesome, best of luck with your story!

[@Ayyavazi13]

Never thought of Rocky that way, but it makes sense. Maybe it's time I revisit some classics.

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Yes always worth a rewatch! Rocky is such a writer movie. Which makes sense because Stallone wrote it while being desperate to break into Hollywood

[@BKPrice]

My protagonist is sort of the inverse. He initially has a goal of stopping the environmental destruction of his world. This stems from his unbounded optimism resulting from having been raised by humans (he is an elf) who are typically hated by elves. But this story is a tragedy that sees the protagonist lose his optimism even though he accomplishes his original goal and descend into depths of hatred and distrust that cause him to hate all other races. In the end he becomes a murderous recluse who wishes only to see the world burn because he hates everything in it due to a very warped view of reality.

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Cool, sounds pretty dark. Best of luck with your story!

[@Vandylizer]

Ah so, I guess you could say he becomes a...dark...Elf? 😉

[@BKPrice]

@@Vandylizer That is exactly what he becomes. He undergoes a genetic modification to become a sub-race of elves.

[@Vandylizer]

@@BKPrice Nice! Are you sure it's not just because it looks cooler?! (But seriously; nice to see you thought out an actual backstory for this rather than making it purely cosmetic like some writers do 💄 😉)

[@domni4699]

My gawd, this is what i was looking for! I've been having a really hard time trying to make my characters feel real. So I tried doing the character profile, which did help quite a bit. However, i could understand the 'Why'. The four tier system for this, is exactly what i need to flesh my characters out. Im already applying the Myers Briggs and the tactics you mentioned for flaws. I feel like NOW i have the tools to finish my characters. Thanks man, this has been invaluable knowledge for me to grow!

[@Dark_Peace]

My MC's goal is to pass the "Citizenship Test" to reintegrate society and be free (stated in chapter 1). She also secretly wishes to come back home and see her parents but she actually tells herself that she hates them because they abandonned her in that Préventive Réhabilitation Institute (told in chapter 4) when she was found to have the Gene of Killers. But it actually goes deeper, because in chapter 8 she reveals that her parents were actually visiting her a lot until the day she beat up another child (for reasons...) right when her parents walked in and they got horrified for they thought she was really become a killer. So she actually hate and fear herself and project it onto the whole world. And in the last chapter, she realises she kept her hâte because that's what she could tie to the last memory she has of her parents and she doesn't want to let it go. I like that scene (I say that because it wasn't planned at all XD) because I've been able to tie that with the villain who's a politician using past hate she doesn't want to let go to fuel présent hate. I might be throwing flowers at myself (do you say that in english ?) but I'm impressed how I've been able to take the multitude of totally unrelated concepts my story started with and connect everything into a single central theme. :O For that last part I was inspired by the 2022 movie Belle, in the song "A million miles away" she sings to make another character come back but the lyrics actually talk about her grief for her dead mom. A movie and song to absolutely watch for anyone reading this.

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Never heard the phrase “throwing flowers at myself” but it reminds me of “tooting my own horn”

[@liviemillie6455]

super clear and helpful, especially with the hero and villain motivation and overlap. Thank you!

[@mottavisuals]

THANK YOU SO MUCH! I was having trouble with a character goal because they lacked a good motivation. This shed so much light into it.

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Thrilled to hear it helped!

[@kristen9945]

your advice is so unique and useful thank u~~

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Thrilled to hear it! Thanks for watching

[@Andrewtr6]

For the story I've been working on most lately, the hero's goal is to solve crimes and to stop the bad guy. I write comics and graphic novels so, I try to approach each issue as its own story. The hero might gain a goal from issue to issue, but since he's a homicide detective, there will be a case that he needs to solve. There are also otherworldly elements that he has to deal with quite often. This story was inspired in part by Grimm, Supernatural, and gothic horror stories such as Bram Stoker's Dracula. There's also a layer of noir inspiration. Part of my character's motivation is also why he became a cop. His father was a small-town sheriff and one night as a kid, he and his father stopped at a small store. Moments later two masked robbers would come in to hold it up and the character witnessed his dad stop the robbery. His father became a local hero in their small town because of this. Though his father wasn't perfect, the hero still looks up to him. His father's heroism and bravery motivated him to join the NOPD in order to help people. As for deep dark belief, I haven't thought about this before. Since there are supernatural elements in the story my first thought was that he fears becoming a monster. However, one of the supporting characters has this fear because she saw it happen to her own sister. For the MC, I looked towards him possessing a deep dark belief about the world. That being that it's dangerous. When he was a kid (probably like 8 or 9) he witnessed a robbery. No one died, but it would still be frightening for a child. Almost 50 years later, he learns that nightmares exist. His world becomes even darker and he's afraid that the monsters he sees are simply a reflection of reality behind the curtain. One theme I have for the story is that humans still manage to be the worst type of monster- which can also play into the dark belief. It's believed by folklorists that many monsters were created to explain the actions of humans: serial killers, rapists, cannibalism, infanticide. People didn't want to believe humans could behave in such a way, so they created monsters. To restate his deep dark belief more clearly, he fears that the dangers he sees regularly are what the world really is like. When he discovers the existence of monsters, this only adds to this fear. I purposely made the choice to make him older so that he can believe that he's seen it all; the worst the world has to offer. When he is introduced to the existence of the supernatural, this flips his worldview upside down. There are multiple themes here and I'll have to refine them some more. I thought of something that is in a similar vein to dark belief: the characters dark desire. My hero could have a secret deep desire that he never discovered the supernatural despite all the people he's saved because of it. It's selfish but human. At some point, he could be given the option to forget about it all, but all the people he's helped is enough for him to turn it down.

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

I love that idea of a dark desire. Great way to add depth to your characters.

[@augustynstudios2984]

Your videos are informative! I've watched your videos multiple times to memories your advice. I started my first novel a few weeks ago.

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

What’s your character’s goal and motivation? Also, do you know their deep dark belief and it’s origin? Let us know!

[@SyroNagashi]

My character's goal is to teach people to learn that fighting cannot always solve everything, her motivation comes from when she lost her entire planets citizens due to the fact a neighboring planet had been at war with them for years, but another keen factor of her motivation comes from her parents abusing their powers when they were the rulers of Alboroda, which was a lot different from when her grandmother Karia was ruler but not so much different from when her other past relatives were the rulers of Alboroda. But the thing i like most about how my character is built in regard to goals, is the fact that the antagonist has a similar goal but she goes about it in a different way. Deep inside she just wants to change the past and create a beautiful future.

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

@@SyroNagashi Sounds like you’ve got a good grasp on things. Glad you got some common ground between the protagonist and antagonist when it comes to their goals.

[@behimezio]

villain and hero both must have same or somehow close backstory . the difference is their response . villain wants to take revenge on everyone else for what he/she has endured ; but the hero is someone who doesn't want anyone else to have the same experience as themselves and a actively tries to make sure of that .

[@hudsonbakke8836]

In the current story I'm working on, the main character is a young man who was born to a race of magic wielders but his parents died when he was a baby and he was raised by a farmer who has very limited knowledge of the boy's origins. After the MC's home is attacked and burned and his father is killed, he's forced to run, and his motivations are both survival, and a strong desire to figure out where he came from and what makes him special, and why people are chasing after him. Eventually, he learns of a prophecy which he believes to be about him, and becomes determined to se that prophecy fulfilled, which ultimately becomes a flaw he must overcome, as his obsession with this prophecy and the responsibility he believes he has leads him to make decisions which clash strongly with his moral compass, and he must reconcile his beliefs about fate and destiny with his understanding of right and wrong, ultimately leading him to the realization that he's in control of his own fate and doesn't need to fulfill the words of the prophecy, at least not the way he thought he did. The villain, by contrast, is the long-separated older brother of the main character who was captured as a child and raised as a slave in a distant kingdom, only to rise from servitude and become king himself using his intellect and strength. He's deeply jaded about how his home was ransacked and his mother killed and brother taken from him, and so develops an obsession with justice, particularly for those who hurt people, and uses his position of power to try to assert his view of justice on the entire world, which leads him to do horrible things in an attempt to gain more power, which he would use as a means to further his end goal of bringing "justice" to the world. He knows his brother is alive, and is attempting to capture him so that he could use him to achieve his goals.

[@ridleyformk1244]

8:03 My MC's goal was to be a good husband to his wife and be a good father to his son, with his motivation being to be a better person then either of his parents would ever be. his dark belief being that if he is not a good role model, he be no better then his own folk, with the origin of said dark belief that he had a rough childhood with an alcoholic mother and left that left him when he was a baby. But he found himself giving in to the addiction that consumed his mother.

[@jillianh7565]

I recently finished a dungons and dragons game called Ravenloft or Curse of Strahd. In this game my character, Zelda Alagondar (a half elf cleric princess), started off with the goal of securing a political deal between Barovia and Neverwinter in order to save her people (She is the heir to Neverwinter). Throughout the campaign her goal shifts to encompass protecting the adventuring party, finding true love and more. She does these things because she cares very deeply for others and wants to see her nation prosper. She often has the weight of expectations on her given she is the next queen of Neverwinter whhich makes the conflict between duty and love more profound. Additionally the person she eventually fell in love with (Alexander) is from the oposing family (Von Zarovich), so Zelda now has to grapple with the whole Romeo and Juliet style forbidden romance she got into. To make things worse, both Alexander and his older brother Strahd are vampires. Strahd is also the main villian of the story.

[@SyroNagashi]

Hey, i don't know if i missed it but are you close to finishing my request. I'm really excited for it, so sorry if my question comes off as annoying😁

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Remind me… What was your request?

[@SyroNagashi]

In your video scenes vs chapters we were talking in the comment section about a characters ending dialog, whether that be last words or words that could set up a sequel in the future

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

@@SyroNagashi Gotcha. That'll be up on Thursday

[@SyroNagashi]

Ok cool 😎

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Ending Dialogue video is up now: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oKjXeH58nZ2gfLc

[@emilyeshraghi8197]

Can you help give some more examples of the 4 stages/levels of motivation? Like in the Harry Potter series, his goal is to stop Voldemort because Voldemort is not great for the world and because he killed Harry's parents (motivation). What would his deep dark belief be?

[@chicofoxo]

His dark belief is that he is a Slytherin and/or as corruptable as Tom Riddle. The origin was when he could speak to snakes and supposedly "gifted". His motivation is to prove that he is Griffindor worthy and oppose Slytherin values.

[@chicofoxo]

Perhaps a good book has to have more than one goal. I always thought Harry's main goal was to fit in and make friends since his motivation was that he was raised as an orphan with little access to society. Half of Rocky involved Rocky's goal of winning Adrian's love.

[@pelipoika88]

Goal: Find out who stabbed him and who robbed him. Are they the same person or different people? Motivation: He didn't like getting stabbed. Dark Belief: He'll be an incapable thief, not the upcoming king if thieves that he was, and if that becomes reality, he will lose the last connection he has to his girlfriend. Origin: Him and his girlfriend were on their way to become king and queen of thieves. His girlfriend has since died. But when the main character steals, he feels like she's there with him. To the point that he imagines her on the job with him every time he goes to steal something. And he can't let that go.

[@taymustard620]

Im making a fighting game and i this is great

[@denisegarcia7262]

My MC's goal is to find her birth parents. Why? To find the missing pieces of her life in an attempt to define who she is. Her Deep Dark Belief is that she is not worthy of being loved and will never "belong" anywhere, she is unwanted. Her Deep Dark Belief originates from being abandoned as an infant and growing up in foster care, being shuffled from one home to another but never adopted. My MC actually has two goals. She has the goal listed above in her character arc, but the overarching goal is to restore balance in the Mortal Realm between the Seven Virtues and the Seven Deadly Sins. This character's story will play out, along with a male protagonist, in Book One of a seven-book series. The male protagonist is one of the Virtues (Diligence) in human form, the female protagonist (who lives in the Mortal Realm and "thinks" she is human) is his soulmate, and their antagonist is one of the Sins (Sloth).

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Since you're writing a series, it's great that you have an overarching goal as well. And I like the concept of your Seven Virtues/Sins being out of balance. Best of luck with the writing!

[@brianedwards7142]

My character's goal is to clear his name after being framed for a string of murders. His motivation is to avoid penalty (I haven't decided if this society has the death penalty because how do you execute a wizard?).

[@Misscuddlycuddles]

Holy shit this is some helpful tips but I can't think of anything-

[@kidanemariameyob8752]

Brandon can a villain play the role of a protagonist in a movie? If yes please let me know an example of a movie.

[@kidanemariameyob8752]

I googled it and found the following While there can be villainous protagonists, villains are antagonists when they're not the main character of the story, but instead the main source of conflict for the main characters. Examples of villain protagonists include Darth Vader and Captain Hook. 2.

[@nicoross1133]

What would you say are Jack Dawson’s goal and motivation? Or Will Hunting? Having a hard time seeing what these are

[@dcle944]

I have trouble with this. My story is about a guy who’s searching for his girlfriend who got separated at the inciting incident. People keep asking me what his motivation is. I don’t get it. Because he loves her of course. Do I need to come up with some other motivation? What am I missing?

[@Anonymous-bp5ix]

A wealthy young man seeks a woman he can trust to love him until death do they part: because he is afraid of dying alone. Brandon, your videos are of inestimable value.

[@magajinwilbafoshausanovel5190]

Thanks

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Thanks for watching!

[@musiclad290]

Main character's goal: to bring his sister back from the dead Motivation: because she died a tragic death at a very young age. How about that?

[@elshebactm6769]

🤠👍🏿

[@WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Thanks for watching!