There Are Motivations Other Than Vengeance and Tragedy, You Know

Motivation is why characters do the things that they do. Sometimes that motivation is immediate, like they need to pull one last heist because their kid is sick and needs an operation they can't afford. Sometimes that motivation is long-term, like holding to an oath they swore when they were young that they refuse to give up on even in the face of certain doom.

There is a mistake that a lot of writers make, though, and it's assuming that for a character's motivation to be interesting that it has to come from a place of pain. That rage, a thirst for vengeance, or some great tragedy are the only motivations worth bringing to the page... and I tell you from experience this can often negatively affect your writing.

So take a moment, and reflect on the motivations you use. Then ask yourself if you reach for the same ones over and over again, and why that is?

Really sit with it for a bit, and contemplate.

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How Does Your Garden Grow?

I want you to take a moment and think of everything you know about Batman. What came to mind first? Probably that he's the world's greatest detective, a deadly martial artist, and the CEO of a billion-dollar corporation. However, chances are good that you also remembered the fact that his parents were gunned down in front of him when he was a child, and that this traumatic event has become key to his one-man crusade against street crime.

That sort of fact about a character's background and motivation seems like it would be super important, right? As if that's where you'd plant the seed of a character and grow outward from there? Well, according to most reports of comic book history, the dead parents backstory was tacked on later. When Batman first landed on the comic book scene he was just a grim avenger in a cool costume fighting cultists, mad scientists, and weird mutants. He was compelling enough through his looks and actions, and didn't actually require this motivation of sheer tragedy to get the audience interested in him. It was just sort of tacked on, like some sprinkles on an already tasty cupcake. And even once it was established, it was really a huge focus of the character until his gritting up in the 1980s... it rarely, if ever, came up in depictions before that (particularly in the TV series that vaulted the character to heights of fame).

Batman could have had dozens of other motivations. From taking a vow like a literal Dark Knight (one of service and not vengeance), to civic pride, to simply obeying Rule .303 (those with the ability and the means have a duty to assist), he was a blank slate at the time. The audience was already buying the comics, proving the tragic backstory was not a necessary component of who the character was.

It worked, but it wasn't required.

Now, this is not to say that tragedy and revenge are never integral to who a character is, what they represent, or the story you're trying to tell with them. From Darth Vader, to the Punisher, to the Phantom of The Opera, these grim, tragic aspects are often central to what characters represent. However, this becomes one of those all rectangles are squares, but not all squares are rectangles sort of scenarios. Because while these motivations are central to some stories and characters, they are by no means central to all of them as some kind of necessary ingredient.

Just because you can doesn't mean you must.

Content, Happy People, and Dragon Hunting

I've talked about this subject a bit on my gaming blog Improved Initiative, specifically in the posts Do Content, Happy People Hunt Dragons? and Why So Many Sad Backstories? but I think it's worth repeating. A dragon doesn't have to have murdered someone's grandparents, or be actively threatening their family, for them to be motivated to go stop it. The character might have a strong sense of duty, demanding they protect others from harm even if they themselves are now in danger. They might be employed as a dragon slayer, meaning that this is the entire reason they're kept on the payroll. They might seek the thrill of the hunt, or even need a part of that dragon's body in order to make a medicine to stave off sickness, push back old age, or merely to become stronger.

Once you've eaten a dragon's heart, you can skip leg day.

All of this is not to say that you immediately need to alter your protagonist's motivation in your story. If you have a character who's obsessed with catching a serial killer because they murdered that protagonist's son, and that works for building drama in your story, stick with it. If your villain is motivated by a sense of aggrieved entitlement because they were never recognized for their genius, and no other motivation works as well for them, don't fix what isn't broken!

The point of this exercise isn't to tell writers to rely less on dark, tragic motivations for their characters and stories. It's to ensure that, before we reach for those backstories, that we examine all the options we have available to make our story work. Sometimes it's an old vow taken by an aging, cynical knight that hits us even harder than someone trying to settle an old score.

And for those who could use a bit of a jumpstart on thinking outside this particular box, I'd recommend giving 100 Character Goals and Motivations a look! While written for RPGs, it's just as useful for writers trying to find some fresh inspiration.

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That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my cat noir novel Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

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