2.2 Character Motivations and Backstory
2 min read•august 9, 2024
Characters are shaped by their past and driven by their . provides the foundation for a character's identity, while influence their behavior and decision-making.
Motivations are the engine that propels characters through the story. Understanding a character's , , and conflicting desires helps writers create complex, relatable individuals who evolve throughout the narrative.
Character Backstory
Foundations of Character History
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- Backstory encompasses a character's past experiences and events shaping their present identity
- mold a character's personality, beliefs, and behaviors
- provides context for current actions and decisions
- Includes family background, education, career path, and significant relationships
- Establishes character's worldview and value system
Psychological Development and Trauma
- Psychological wounds result from past traumatic events or negative experiences
- Unresolved issues from childhood often manifest in adult behavior patterns
- influence character's decision-making and relationships
- Can create internal conflicts or barriers to achieving goals
- Understanding psychological wounds helps writers create complex, relatable characters
Character Motivations
Core Drivers and Desires
- Driving force propels character's actions and decisions throughout the story
- Goals and desires represent what the character actively pursues or yearns for
- Fears and insecurities act as obstacles or sources of conflict for the character
- organizes character's needs and wants in order of importance
- Includes both short-term objectives and long-term aspirations
Layers of Motivation
- involve goals the character is aware of and actively pursues
- influence behavior without the character's full awareness
- stem from personal desires, values, or emotional needs
- arise from societal pressures, expectations, or circumstances
- create internal struggle and drive
Motivation in Storytelling
- serve as the engine driving the plot forward
- Well-defined motivations make characters more believable and relatable
- Changing motivations throughout the story reflect and evolution
- Motivations often clash with obstacles, creating dramatic tension
- Understanding character motivations helps writers craft compelling arcs and satisfying resolutions
Key Terms to Review (18)
Backstory: Backstory refers to the history and background of a character that informs their current motivations, behaviors, and relationships. This narrative element provides context for a character’s journey, influences their decisions, and shapes their development throughout the story, making it essential for crafting compelling character arcs, motivations, and subplots.
Character Development: Character development refers to the process of creating a well-rounded and believable character that evolves throughout a story, revealing their motivations, growth, and depth. This development is crucial as it shapes the audience's connection to the character and drives the narrative forward through their choices and experiences.
Character growth: Character growth refers to the transformation and development a character undergoes throughout a story, often resulting in a change in their beliefs, values, or behaviors. This growth is typically driven by challenges faced by the character, leading to increased depth and relatability. It plays a crucial role in engaging the audience and enhancing the overall narrative by reflecting internal and external conflicts.
Character History: Character history refers to the backstory and experiences that shape a character's personality, motivations, and behaviors. It encompasses the significant events, relationships, and influences in a character's life that contribute to their current identity and decision-making processes. Understanding character history is crucial as it helps in creating depth and authenticity, allowing audiences to connect with characters on a more emotional level.
Character Motivations: Character motivations refer to the underlying reasons or drives that propel a character's actions, decisions, and behavior within a narrative. These motivations are deeply tied to a character's backstory and can influence their goals, conflicts, and relationships, making them essential for creating believable and engaging characters. Understanding these motivations helps in crafting dynamic arcs and non-linear storytelling, as they provide context for why characters react in certain ways at different points in the plot.
Conflicting Motivations: Conflicting motivations refer to the internal struggles characters face when their desires, goals, or needs clash with one another. These tensions add depth and complexity to characters, making them more relatable and engaging by showcasing their vulnerabilities and conflicting desires. Understanding conflicting motivations is essential for building authentic character arcs and driving the narrative forward.
Conscious Motivations: Conscious motivations are the deliberate and intentional desires or goals that drive a character's actions within a story. These motivations are often clearly articulated or understood by the character, guiding their decisions and behaviors as they pursue specific outcomes. Understanding conscious motivations is essential for developing a character's arc and backstory, as it shapes their interactions with other characters and influences the plot's progression.
Core drivers: Core drivers are the fundamental motivations and internal forces that propel a character's actions and decisions within a narrative. These drivers shape a character's goals, influence their relationships, and stem from their backstory, creating depth and authenticity in their portrayal. Understanding core drivers is essential for developing believable characters that resonate with audiences.
Desires: Desires refer to the driving forces that motivate characters to take specific actions throughout a story. They are essential for creating compelling narratives, as they provide insight into a character's motivations and their backstory, helping to shape their journey and interactions with others. Understanding a character's desires allows writers to construct believable arcs and conflicts that resonate with audiences.
Emotional Scars: Emotional scars refer to the psychological wounds that individuals carry from past traumatic experiences, which can affect their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. These scars influence how a character interacts with the world and motivate their actions, often serving as a crucial aspect of their backstory that informs their character arc and development throughout a story.
External Motivations: External motivations refer to the driving forces that come from outside a character, influencing their actions and decisions based on external rewards or pressures. These motivations can include societal expectations, relationships, financial incentives, or any factors that push characters toward certain behaviors, often in contrast to their internal desires. Understanding external motivations is essential for creating well-rounded characters who interact meaningfully with their environment and other characters.
Fears: Fears are deep-rooted emotional responses that characters experience in reaction to perceived threats, failures, or anxieties. They often shape a character's decisions and actions, driving their motivations and influencing their backstory. Understanding a character's fears provides insight into their vulnerabilities and can lead to significant character development throughout a story.
Formative Experiences: Formative experiences refer to significant events or moments in a character's life that shape their beliefs, values, and motivations. These experiences can influence how a character reacts to situations, forms relationships, and pursues goals, providing a foundation for their behavior and decisions throughout the story.
Internal Conflict: Internal conflict refers to the psychological struggle within a character, often involving conflicting desires, beliefs, or emotions. This type of conflict plays a critical role in shaping the character's journey and can drive plot developments, character arcs, and thematic depth.
Internal Motivations: Internal motivations refer to the psychological drives and desires that propel a character to act in specific ways, often rooted in their personal beliefs, values, and emotions. These motivations are critical in shaping a character's decisions and actions, making them more relatable and complex, as they reveal the deeper reasons behind their behavior and how their past experiences influence their present choices.
Motivation Hierarchy: Motivation hierarchy refers to the structured arrangement of a character's desires and needs that drives their actions and decisions throughout a narrative. This concept highlights how a character's motivations are often layered, with basic needs at the foundation and higher-level aspirations building upon them. Understanding this hierarchy is essential for crafting authentic character arcs that resonate with audiences, as it reveals how backstory influences what a character wants at any given moment.
Psychological Wounds: Psychological wounds refer to deep emotional scars that characters carry due to traumatic experiences or significant losses in their past. These wounds often shape a character's motivations, behavior, and worldview, serving as a critical component of their backstory. Understanding these wounds helps to reveal why a character acts in certain ways and how they struggle with internal conflicts throughout the narrative.
Unconscious motivations: Unconscious motivations are the underlying drives and desires that influence a character's behavior without their conscious awareness. These hidden forces can stem from past experiences, fears, or deep-seated beliefs, shaping how a character interacts with others and reacts to situations. Understanding these motivations is crucial in developing rich backstories and creating authentic character arcs.