Guest Post: Character Motivation: The Why of Your Story from Hannah Ruth Johnson

Hey everyone! Today, I’m SO EXCITED to share with you this guest post from Hannah Ruth Johnson over at Faith, Fiction, & Fairytales. Last year, Hannah Ruth had a great series of posts about character motivations (which you can find HERE!) which I absolutely loved, so when she offered to write a guest post for me, I knew exactly what it was I wanted her to write!

If you enjoy this post, definitely go check Hannah’s site out–she’s got lots of awesome content you won’t regret reading (and maybe even a guest post from yours truly over there as well)!

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Character Motivation: The Why of Your Story

Hello! I’m Hannah Ruth, and I am SO grateful for the opportunity to get to post over here!

If you’re into writing at all, you’ve probably considered the reasons behind your characters’ actions at some point. Every plot is made up of both external events and internal influences that impact how our characters interact with their worlds and with the people around them. This is a vital part of building a captivating story.

People don’t just do things. They do things because of past hurts, traumatic incidents in their lives, or loyalties and love. Part of writing deep and consistent characters is delving into who they are and how their pasts shape them.

We’re all motivated by something. What motivates your characters?

In the “Motivate Your Characters” series I did over on my blog, I particularly highlighted seven good motivators to use in your writing—fear, doubt, pride, insecurity, revenge, duty, and love.

Mind you, the seven motivators I focused on are not comprehensive—in fact, I’m sure you could come up with many more. But these ones have stood out to me in various works of fiction I’ve read over the years as well as in real life.

Regardless of what categories your character’s motivations fall under, there are some vital questions to ask yourself in order to better understand your characters:

1. Why is my character doing what s/he is doing?
2. Is there an event in his/her past which is causing him/her to react in this way?
3. How do prior events influence my character’s worldview and responses to events?
4. How might this motivator play a vital role in my character’s arc over the course of the story?

It doesn’t matter if it’s a full-length novel or a short story you’re writing—take the time to fully understand your characters, and you’ll craft a compelling and relatable piece.

Now, here are a few of the key motivators I’ve observed both in books I’ve read and in my own writing, as well as ideas for how to flesh them out well.

Fear

Fear is a primary character motivator—every character should be afraid of something. You don’t have to write suspense or horror for fear to play a vital role. For better or for worse, fear pushes our characters to act and presents the perfect opportunity for our characters to grow.

Make sure your character has a reason for their fear—often tied to a specific incident. A strong, motivating fear has roots somewhere in your character’s past. Steffan from Melanie Dickerson’s The Noble Servant is terrified of geese, which seems ridiculous until we learn that geese scared him into a well while his mother was dying. He associates this incident with geese, so they trigger fear.

Using fear as a motivator requires manipulating your plot to force your character to face that fear. We don’t do this to torture our characters, but to grow them. Ultimately, the goal is to work in events that will allow your character to overcome their fear and inspire your reader in the process.

Make your character afraid. Give them a reason for it. And give them the strength to overcome it and move forward in freedom.

Duty

Another common motivator is honor. Whether it’s a promise your character has made, something asked of them, or deep family ties, strong morals and loyalties can deeply impact your plot. Usually a deep and fierce love influences these characters’ actions, but other times it might be profession-based.

To harness this motivation, give your character a conflict of interests. A commitment to duty is lovely until something pushes against it. Duty-motivated characters face circumstances that force them to choose between honoring their commitment or following a different path.

Ultimately, this leads, again, to a choice… and its repercussions. Will he marry the girl he loves, or will he provide for his friend’s widow? Will she sacrifice her friends and social life to raise her siblings? When it comes down to it, what is most important? And how does this impact your characters moving forward?

Pride

Pride isn’t always a core motivator, but it tends to be at play in our characters. They might behave in a certain way to protect reputation or so they’ll be held in high regard. Like just about every human alive, they’ll have a hard time admitting when they’re wrong.

Pride can hamper relationships by causing a character to feel above another. It also can cause varying behavior depending on if your character externalizes feelings of hurt pride—by becoming angry or denying it—or if they internalize these feelings and ultimately experience a blow to their ego. Either way, again, this impacts relationships… and gives our characters yet another way to grow!

What it eventually comes down to is our beloved saying… pride comes before the fall. If pride is a core fault for your character, use circumstances to humble them—let them flounder and find themselves needing help. The goal with proud characters is to show them they’re wrong and surround them with people who can help them get it right.

Revenge

We all know the character who is motivated by revenge, who is out to make things right. Ultimately, this motivation hurts them in the long run, and it can be powerful and all-consuming.

Revenge is always rooted in a past harm—in an event your character is trying to set to rights. This motivation might be noble under certain circumstances, but in most cases, it’s harmful to them and others, and the plot often revolves around your main character learning to forgive.

With a protagonist who is dead set on revenge, some serious heart work will need to happen before they’ll be the hero you need. They’ll need people to rally around them and push them to change. They’ll battle to forgive and struggle against the bitterness that still rises within.

Remember that the desire for revenge doesn’t disappear in an instant. It takes hard work for your character to overcome those thoughts and urges. But with prayer and support, they can change, and they can live the abundant life God has for them—a life free from the heavy load of bitterness and resentment.

Insecurity

Insecurity is a very real motivator, both for our characters… and for us. Characters who are motivated by insecurity feel that they have something to prove, whether to others, or just to themselves. Perhaps they’re trying to satisfy a particularly critical parent or boss, or maybe they’ve made a grand mess of things and want to regain trust.

Often, your character’s sense of worth will be at stake with this insecurity; when they feel they’ve failed, they will struggle with self-loathing. Rejection, too, will be a huge cut. With this motivator, your plotline should soften the character and teach them to trust other people… and also teach them not to pin their sense of worth on what others say.

This can play out in a variety of ways. Characters may be volatile and react strongly when they feel they’ve failed. They may be quiet and silently implode. They also might put on a false arrogance. 

The ultimate goal is to show this character that vulnerability is okay. They are safe and loved as they are, and they have nothing to prove.

Doubt

Doubt is different than fear. Fear is a reaction… doubt is an attitude. Like fear, chronic doubt is caused by past events, but it isn’t a response to a specific trigger—it’s a lens of looking at life; skepticism. Hence, it can be hard to write without creating an annoying character with a victim mentality or magically resolving your character’s skepticism.

These characters often have strong self-reliance and feel that if they want their needs met, they’ll have to meet them, because nobody else will. To fully eliminate a doubtful spirit, your character is going to need a complete reworking of their mind… and fortunately, the Holy Spirit is in the business of changing the way we think and renewing our minds! To move forward, your character will have to put their trust in God. Slowly but surely, until He has their whole heart.

Work events into the plot that will test your character. Others should fail to meet their needs/expectations. Your character should fall back into doubt sometimes… and then return. Growth doesn’t happen overnight, and backward progress is simply part of life. My growth isn’t linear, nor should my characters’ growth be.

When done well, this can be an especially powerful motivator and be very inspiring to readers who also feel crippled by doubt.

Love (my personal favorite)

There are three types of love that can have a strong impact on your stories—romantic love, brotherly love, and agape love. Romantic love can be a key plot point as your characters battle the odds to be together or have to give up other priorities. Brotherly love for a friend, sibling, parent, or otherwise can push us—and our characters—to step out of comfort zones. And agape love is mainly characterized in God’s love for us—incredible, unconditional, and entirely undeserved. It breathes life and hope into a dead situation. It offers light into a pitch-black tunnel.

Love leads our characters to do things that make them uncomfortable; things that they wouldn’t do if not for someone else. It pushes them to be better people. It changes who they are and what they do.

How do you motivate your characters?

Look back at those questions from earlier. What lays in your character’s past that continues to impact them as they move forward? What relationships push them to do things they otherwise wouldn’t? How can you harness these motivators as you build your plot?

Think about these things, and you’ll be well on your way to writing compelling, consistent characters.

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A HUGE thank you to Hannah Ruth once again for writing this wonderful post! If you enjoyed her post, please go follow her on her blog, Faith, Fiction, & Fairytales, and on Facebook!

And thank YOU for reading! What is your favorite character motivator in literature/movies? (Honestly, I love a good revenge arc or dutiful character.) If you’re currently reading/watching something, can you identify the main character’s main motivator? If you write, what is your main character’s motivation? Let me know in the comments below! God bless! ~ Kay Adelin