Clear and intelligent motivation is one of the biggest challenges in creating believable characters and compelling plots. Characters lacking desire are prone to running out of steam mid-novel or acting in a way that furthers the plot without regard to logic or common sense.
Getting to the heart of your character isn’t easy but it’s worth the effort. There are many techniques to developing a protagonist, but you need more than a physical description, quirks and habits, and likes and dislikes. If you want to really understand your hero, you need to find out where they hurt.
Admit it or not, our hurts drive us. We may have other motivations or higher aspirations, but for many people, the underlying factor is a wound and the stinking thinking that came after.
Literary types call this a limiting belief.
The limiting belief is the voice that tells your hero that she can’t or shouldn’t take some action, or that her actions are doomed to fail. It’s the voice that tells your protagonist that he’s unlovable or cannot possibly measure up in some way.
In a post on Writers in the Storm, Lisa Hall-Wilson explored how the limiting belief can help you dive deeper into character and create obstacles for your hero to overcome. With a limiting belief, every setback confirms the misconception. Every bad date confirms that your hero is unlucky in love. Every rejection confirms that she’s unlovable. Every mistake proves to your protagonist that he’s a bad person or a failure. With each setback, the belief becomes more deeply engrained, which usually triggers even more obstacles, until the hero’s status quo becomes untenable. He must change or die.
Once you have an idea of the limiting belief, Hall-Wilson suggests asking questions: “How would that affect someone’s confidence? Their ability to take risk? What lengths would be considered acceptable to avoid having that confirmation? How would they try and protect themselves from that hurt? What messages would they tell themselves in stressful situations?”
But how do you get there? How do you find the source of your character’s motivation to achieve and the limiting belief that holds them back?
Ask why.
Start with your character’s objective and first ask why they want it. Then ask why they have that desire. Then ask why again a few more times, until you get to the source of their motivation, whatever is the core belief or base factor that drives them.
Hall-Wilson suggests starting with an “I should…” statement, but “I want…” can work as well. The “I should…” statement doesn’t need to be true, but it must be something your character believes is true. How does that look in practice?
I should…work out more.
- Why? So I lose weight and look better.
- Why? So that I can get dates.
- Why? So that I can find love.
- Why? Because you’re nobody unless somebody loves you.*
I want to…write a bestseller.
- Why? So I can be successful.
- Why? So that I can show my friends and family I did it.
- Why? Because they don’t think I can.
- Why? Because I’m a loser.*
Those are some D-list examples, but you get the point. Whether your hero’s desire is slaying the dragon, getting away with murder, learning magic, becoming a doctor, surviving a war, leaving a marriage, or discovering a lost kingdom, finding their limiting belief and their deepest motivation will help you create layers of character and meaning in your story.
* Any similarity between these limiting beliefs and the author are purely coincidental.