Last Saturday, I co-lead a workshop on motivation. 
We chose this topic because while I was in France, I realized that the motivation of my protagonist was weak. Very weak. And damned if that didn’t affect the whole plot, making it saggy in places and utterly not logical in others. Neither of which are good for creating stories that work.
We talked mostly about motivating our characters so that plots don’t sag. But we also talked some about what motivates us as writers and how, once we’ve found that motivation, we can keep tapping into it. I’ll get to that in a minute.
But first I wanted to share a couple of take-aways from the afternoon and a terrific list of motivations we came up with. A few take-aways:
–Motivation can come in layers. You think you have it nailed, and then you realize you need to go deeper. (Thank you, Jenni, for putting this into words. I was dancing around it.)
–There’s two kinds of motivation, external and internal. Think of external motivation as what the character wants (something can cause this, too); and internal as why she wants it.
–A good way to uncover your character’s motivation is to ask why. And keep asking why. This will lead you deeper and deeper.
And now, the list of motivations:
Avoid confrontation
Get out of an abusive marriage
Escape
Find the truth
Money
Fame
Power
Control
Fears
Family Duty
Grief (processing it)
Scientific discovery
Seeking knowledge
Self acutalization
Adventure or thrill seeking
Sex
Love
Avoiding death
Recovery from an illness
Presenting a facade to the world
Survival
Jealousy
Atonement
Creative urge
Mastery
As you can see, this is quite the list! I plan to save it somewhere I’ll have access to it and make additional notes on it. Because, trust me, you will save yourself time and misery if you figure out your character’s motivations ahead of time!
And now, the all-important question–what motivates you to write? That is something only you can answer, but after listening to the group members share their reasons, I can tell you it’s a good thing to ponder. Ask yourself that question and write about it in your journal. You might be surprised with what comes up!
The other topic that came up often in France was arc. As in, what is it and why do I need it? So that’s the subject of our next workshop in Portland on May 19th. There’s still a couple spaces left if you’re interested. All the details are here.
What motivates you as a writer? Care to share? Or tell us about your character’s motivation? Leave a comment! Or come on over to the Facebook group and discuss.
Don Williams
Good points, as if you ever give bad ones, Charlotte.
Hope you get this comment as several attempts on my part to comment on various past posts seems to have gotten lost.
One of the things I feel that can motivate a fictional character is to play the part of the character in question in your mind and by acting it out. Pretending that you really are the character, and acting it out as if your were an actor, brings that movation out for me. If the character is mad at someone, then I play act the part out like an actor would in a play or movie. However, be sure you do it where no one can see you or they’ll think your crazy. In my case, well, to be honest, it’s already to late for that.
Charlotte Rains Dixon
So funny, I was just doing this, Don. I was trying to figure out how to describe it when one character runs into another and hugs him. It really helped to act it out!