Character Motivation. Now it’s personal.

[Futhark]

This week I am struggling with why the MC cares. Any advice, suggestions or questions are very welcome.

The story so far…(in broad brush strokes)
The MC is a mystical warrior with a Sherlock type personality. He belongs to a nation of people that have recently become subjugated/allied to a larger empire. He lives and works in a temple in the capital as part of an elite force for the empire.

While visiting his lady friend in a disreputable part of town, he senses the pain of a prostitute. Upon investigation he finds that a city official is responsible. Unable to do anything without compromising himself, he eases the woman’s dying, tracks the official and, in a cold fury, exacts justice. As he gives the official the dead woman’s final moments of trauma, he gets an impression of a plot to assassinate the emperor.

Hopefully this illustrates the MC’s values of honour and justice, some of the anger and resentment he feels towards his “overlords”, and the constraints placed on him by the political and social environment he is in.

Now the problem of motivation. His internal motivation in the beginning is to achieve honour through conforming to family and societal expectations, but he is actually lacking any real sense of accomplishment or pride. He doesn’t know it yet, but he wants purpose in his life, a purpose more aligned with his values and not the arbitrary rules imposed on him.

One of his greatest strengths/flaws is his curiosity. This drives the initial external motivation to find out if the plot against the emperor is true. Then, um, yeah. So what if it’s true (obviously it is). What does the MC care? What could happen to make it personal enough to risk his life. His lady friend gets involved? Too cliché. It’s the right thing to do? Too black and white. Something in his past that compels him? Possible. I have been chewing on an idea that he may know something darker, or been part of it, and this situation raises alarm bells and the chance for atonement.

I am happy for this to become a general discussion about motivation so feel free to post about your own stories.

 

[goldhawk]

This week I am struggling with why the MC cares. Any advice, suggestions or questions are very welcome.

Why do you care? What motivates you to write? Is it fun? Is it part of your identity, "I am a writer"?

Other possibilities are things that happened in the MC's past. Were they bullied? Jilted? Humiliated? Forsook?

People are motivated by their emotions. Negate emotions drive them to prevent bad things from happening. Positive ones drive them to repeat them. And remember, positive emotions are more powerful than negative ones.

 

[Futhark]

Honestly I don’t think I am motivated to write. It will be a question of discipline. You see, I have an architect personality, I want to create designs and systems, which is what I have done with the world building. Now, I’m fascinated with psychology and storytelling, so crafting characters and plot is fun. Writing the story, however, is a goal I have in order to illustrate what I have created. This is where it has become clear to me that, though often intertwined and dependent on each other, goals and motive are different things.

So, ultimately the MC will have the goal of defeating the evil forces moving in the shadows. His motivation to discipline himself to the achievement of said goal is, at this time, rather vague. Sure, he wants purpose and to realise his potential, the strength to develop his own identity, but that’s the underlying theme.

Your final comments are thought provoking. I think I will have to travel back in time and examine the MC’s past with that gem in mind.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[FifthView]

This is a little odd for me, because your character is simultaneously angry and resentful toward the "overlords" but should want, ultimately, to save the emperor who is...an overlord. Perhaps, the overlord, or at least a symbol of that system.

He's initially a servant of the empire, wants to conform to the societal expectations...but he lacks a sense of pride and accomplishment in the role he plays so far...and he actually hates the seemingly arbitrary rules placed upon him by society.

This is all a bit of clutter for me.

Maybe it's a clutter for him too, heh.

I like coming up with motivations that have something to do with a character's past. Something in the present triggers that or seems key to resolving that, even if the character isn't quite self-aware—although he might be.

One of his greatest strengths/flaws is his curiosity. This drives the initial external motivation to find out if the plot against the emperor is true.

I don't think curiosity will be enough. I personally don't think curiosity is much of a motivator, alone. Curiosity becomes a strong motivator only when the circumstances surrounding the mystery play into that deeper motivation of a character.

His internal motivation in the beginning is to achieve honour through conforming to family and societal expectations,

Similarly, I don't think this is the whole story. You kind of say as much when you say he doesn't yet know that he really wants a sense of purpose aligned with his values. Maybe achieving honor by conforming was just a band-aid for something else, a false "fix."

I suspect these two things, his curiosity and his need for a sense of purpose, will arise from the same hidden wellspring. You haven't mentioned anything like a backstory for this character, so I'm curious. [Heh, so what lies behind my curiosity...?]

 

[Futhark]

Exactly why I had to articulate it, because it is a clutter. Ok, I don’t know how to quote you since the changes to the forum so bare with me.

Yes he is a servant to the empire, but only because of his obligations to his mystic order and the samurai like code of honour of his people. He will be seen as worthless, literally, if he doesn’t conform. He carries that subconsciously, it’s his upbringing and identity. The empire has a different culture. Women are property, slaves are treated like animals, war is waged dishonourably. So, yes, he is very conflicted and reluctant to save the emperor, and yet, it is his sworn duty.

Curiosity. When he gets the impression of the plot from the dying official, he is also attacked by a mind trap, a failsafe like the cyanide tooth of a Russian spy. Now, while all magic traces back to a single origin point, nobody knows that in this age. There are different techniques and signatures, and I have realised since creating the thread, that the MC must recognise this type and know that this situation may be bigger than whoever is wearing a shiny hat this week.

Not the whole story. Hit the nail on the head. A few hours of research and the consensus is that motive comes from backstory. The more complex the story, the more background required. Apparently, if done right, it provides mystery, motive, empathy, understanding and subtext. As it stands, the MC has a sketch of a history, which is not going to cut it at all.

So, while I may not know the answers, at least I know the questions. When, where and why has he encountered this sorcery? Was he part of it, or powerless? Do I want him atoning for his sins, or proving he can make a difference?

No doubt his curiosity, which I should clarify is actually a burning desire for knowledge, is partly to blame.

 

[FifthView]

For research or inspiration, you might take a look at various famous detectives from literature.

One of my go-to sources on this, although it's more something I stumbled upon once, is Auden's essay "The Guilty Vicarage." I read this in his book The Dyer's Hand, a collection of essays; but today I just discovered that Harper's Magazine has posted the entire thing online from its May 1948 issue: The Guilty Vicarage | Harper's Magazine (four pages, so click next at the end of each.)

Just going from memory, Auden summarized his interest and a general reader interest in detective stories by saying those stories "restore society to a state of grace" or some such (paraphrased.) This mean that the murderer upsets that system of grace, and the detective does what he does, finds the murderer so that the murderer can be punished, because this will restore the system to that state of grace.

However, at least as stated, this is a fairly abstract, impersonal sort of motivation. What does each detective get out of the process? What is the detective's motivation? Perhaps this return to a state of grace actually describe's each detective's primary motivation, but not in a personal way.

I haven't actually read much detective fiction, so my impressions are colored by their movie and television incarnations.

Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes seem to see every mystery as a test of their own worth. Poirot always talks about his "little grey cells," i.e. his brain cells. And the Sherlock portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch also seems to become very troubled when a mystery can't be instantly solved, as if it's a challenge to his intellect. The mystery itself for both of these individuals is the "broken state," or, that is, the lack of immediate understanding represents a crack in their intellects. They must absolutely put this back in order. [Edit: Actually, come to think of it, Poirot also does have very strong feelings about restoring society. He seems to have an ideal vision in his head and can become a bit vehement when speaking against what the murderer has done.]

But, again, I think that's only a small step toward the personal from the general abstract. If we look at their back stories, we might find the true motivation. Why do they feel this absolute need to prove themselves, or reconfirm their superior intellects? I don't know the exact reason for this. Maybe this is explained better in the books.

I do know that Hercule Poirot is a refugee from Belgium, having fled the invasion of the Germans at the inauguration of WWI or during that war, that he'd been a policeman in Belgium, and that one case there was the only time he'd failed to solve a crime—at least, this is one claim he made. He'd also encountered what he thought to be false detectives, or policemen who were quite incompetent. I don't know other circumstances in his life that may have influenced his need to solve mysteries, perhaps even earlier in life, but I could almost invent some based on this information.

Sherlock Holmes is an addict, a genius. I don't know why exactly he would need to prove himself, but I could imagine that he had always been derided or dismissed or thought an oddball—a curse of being a young genius, perhaps. But there might be something even deeper, an event or situation in his past, that led to his addiction and need to prove himself.

Then there is Father Brown, who it seems didn't have as much need to prove himself as to prove the worth of humanity in general. As a priest, he was continuously confronted with human fallibility—confessions of sin—and he seems to have a need to save sinners. Often in the television show, he's able to get the murderer to confess. Not always, but often. This is another case of a detective trying to "fix" what is broken. What's his deeper motivation? Does he have something in his past, perhaps when he was a boy, that led him to desire to be a priest in the first place? I don't know. One of Father Brown's methods of solving crime is to imagine himself as the criminal, i.e., this requires an ability to see himself as fallible also, capable of imagining doing evil. This, I think, may point at something hidden in his past.

Anywho. Just some food for thought.

Edit: Incidentally, my characterizations of these detectives are my own, not something I pulled from Auden's essay. He does go into some detail about Sherlock and Father Brown; and, the Sherlock description is a bit different from my own. But I've used my experience of two particular television incarnations as a starting point for considering how to look at such individuals who are curious solvers of mysteries in order to discern (or make up) deeper motivations or drives for them.

 

[FifthView]

Ok, I don’t know how to quote you since the changes to the forum so bare with me.

BTW, you should be able to highlight the text you want to quote and click on the "Reply" button that pops up under that highlighted text. This pulls that text down into your new comment with the proper code for quoting.

 

[Devor]

You've got kind of a bigger problem than the character's motivations. Your story here so far is plot-driven. As you've said, he stumbles on a plot that has nothing to do with him, and at the moment everyone he knows that's involved is already dead.

Think about some of the Mission Impossible movies. He gets the mission - cool - but the villain is a traitor from his team, or wants him to release a dangerous prisoner that he caught, or in some other way makes the stakes personal almost before the story has even begun.

Anything can motivate someone into doing the right thing. Motivation is easy. Boredom and upbringing can draw people towards anything. The question you need to answer is why is this person the one who must resolve this plot? Him, and nobody else. And the answer is agency, that he as a result of all his character quirkiness did something to contribute to it, that he has to resolve it to achieve a sense of "literary justice."

You said that he's a "sherlock" type who is just too curious for his own good? Okay, now step back from the character, and think about your plot. There's a scheme to assassinate the emperor. How could a bad case of sherlockian curiosity have caused it? (Hint: Years ago he was asked to investigate.... and he dug up answers that changed how people see the world). That would be a basic first step.

The next step to making it personal and character driven is to take out the randomness of how he ends up getting involved. He was visiting his lady friend? Perhaps she, or someone close to them, arranged to have him stumble on the prostitute hoping he would bring it back to the official and stumble on the plot - a third party who quietly set him up to intervene because they know he's the one and only person who will do what he does.

Finally, he has to care about something, something nobody else cares about the way he does, and that thing has to be in jeopardy somehow.

So, that's .... he in some way caused the problem, he's the only one who can tackle it this way, and he's got his personal stakes in the game.

 

[Devor]

highlight the text you want to quote and click on the "Reply" button that pops up under that highlighted text

Huh, learn something new all the time.

 

[Futhark]

Huh, learn something new all the time.

So it is. Excellent points.

Anything can motivate someone into doing the right thing. Motivation is easy. Boredom and upbringing can draw people towards anything. The question you need to answer is why is this person the one who must resolve this plot? Him, and nobody else. And the answer is agency, that he as a result of all his character quirkiness did something to contribute to it, that he has to resolve it to achieve a sense of "literary justice.".

Finally, he has to care about something, something nobody else cares about the way he does, and that thing has to be in jeopardy somehow.

So, that's .... he in some way caused the problem, he's the only one who can tackle it this way, and he's got his personal stakes in the game.

How could a bad case of sherlockian curiosity have caused it? (Hint: Years ago he was asked to investigate.... and he dug up answers that changed how people see the world). That would be a basic first step.

I have come across the term agency only recently. So far the answers are: skill set (he has the potential to make a difference), and mindset (he is able to question the status quo, see the bigger picture and finally overcome authority or social boundaries without losing his moral compass). So I have to work on emotional state, I think, to make it more personal, to make him care.

Something nobody else cares about the way he does. I think this is the sticking point. As FifthView said “returning society to a state of grace”, that’s part of it. The prior knowledge of the sorcery and the inherent danger, also part. The chance to make amends or a difference? What does he care about? Hmm, guess he’s off to the interview room heh, heh, heh.

The lady friend. She does play a large part in the story later, and it is logical that she orchestrated this to begin with. Thank you for that tidbit.

Not entirely sure what your getting at with the last part when you say ‘caused it’. His agency? Personal stakes? The assassination plot?

Thanks heaps.

 

[FifthView]

The "causing it" is one way to go. Given that your character is already a member of a mystical order, works from a temple, and is a member of an elite force for the empire, he seems to be in a position to have some sort of past that could be coming back to haunt him now. Or else maybe he's just more adept in his mystical field than others and better able to recognize these things. How does he recognize them, when learning of that plot? Experience, I'd assume. I think maybe Devor's pointing at this possibility. Something your MC did in the past or failed to do has led to the development of that plot to kill the emperor.

Your plot as stated is under the burden of this "accidental discovery." Imagine so many other types of fantasy in which an invader, whether military or assassination force or whatever, attacks out of the blue, and the MC is somehow caught up in being attacked, either directly or simply because he's just a member of the defending force. Such an event kind of forces the MC's hand. Or imagine another sort of story in which the MC is engaged in some activity, like being hired to guard a caravan, and something very important to the emperor is stolen from one of the wagons during the middle of the night; now, he's forced to respond because he has a personal responsibility. He's drawn into the plot this way. But yours is different. Your MC stumbles onto something out of the blue that wasn't really targeted at him in any way or at least in which he has no personal stake. So why should he care?

So you could go the route described in the first paragraph above. His own prior actions or inactivity caused this, and now he has to fix it.

I don't think that's the only way to go about it. Maybe he could feel that this plot is an attack on him personally, insofar as the results of that successful plot will send his own life or the lives of those he loves into chaos and danger. Or maybe a successful assassination will upset hopes and plans he's had. For instance, what if this emperor is relatively new to the post, having only replaced the previous emperor, his father, six months earlier, and this new emperor is far more friendly toward your MC's subjugated people, or else the new emperor is also outspoken against some of the abuses of power your MC has experienced in his dealings with his immediate supervisors. Maybe your MC was looking forward to a positive change in the empire, maybe even desperately so, and the assassination plot threatens that hope. (I'm just brainstorming this without knowing the full details of your story; these sorts of things are other options for making it personal.)

 

[Futhark]

Maybe he could feel that this plot is an attack on him personally, insofar as the results of that successful plot will send his own life or the lives of those he loves into chaos and danger.

This is the path I’m traveling at present. He is unique in that he recognises the dark sorcery, the Blood Magic, for what it is. It’s clear to me now that his knowledge comes from a secret, shameful episode in his past. I am trying to force his hand through internal conflict, rather than external circumstances. It’s his choice (maybe not subconsciously) to act.

At this stage of tweaking the plot the emperor is actually pretty good, sort of like Darius the Great. The current proposal for the MC backstory link is that he joined ‘Freedom Fighters’ when younger, and they in fact turned out to be a front for something else. This something else is a (my version) vampire/dragon lord that’s been plotting for a hundred years to restore his people’s long dead kingdom. So, while maybe not connected to the plot to kill the emperor, he may feel indirectly responsible for their actions? Certainly I feel he must have a sense of the approaching doom, not just for the emperor, but for all the peoples of the empire.

Regarding the accidental discovery, yes it would be nice to eliminate the randomness of it. It fits that his lady friend has manipulated him into investigating the missing or dead from her community. It’s personal for her. That would be the first breadcrumb, but is that enough? I can’t see how she could know more. Perhaps someone he left behind that is still part of the plot is reaching out to him? Would that be a value adding subplot, or an unnecessary complication?

 

[skip.knox]

It sounds like a good setup. Your MC is going to have to save an institution and a person he finds reprehensible. Reminds me of Keith Laumer's Retief series. The MC there goes about saving the intergalactic Empire not because it's worth saving but because the alternative is so much worse. He's fending off chaos.

The Retief world was aged and decadent and corrupt. Yours is so bad it will offend the reader, which makes having your character fight to save it more problematic. I don't think I could root for a character who was trying to save a culture that treated human beings that way. Maybe you could find a few redeeming qualities?

Anyway, do work on the back story, but don't be tempted to custom fit it to your plot. Leave room for the character to re-shape the plot. He might, for example, wind up saving someone else *from* the Emperor. Or he allows the assassination to happen because the current Emperor is so very bad, even though this action might trigger a civil war. And he makes such a choice based on his core beliefs.

One other aspect I find worth considering, even when I can't always manage it for a character. Find the person's line in the sand. The thing they won't give up, won't do, won't compromise. Then make them do it. Forcing that moral choice makes for high drama. Somewhat related, have them follow their moral compass into hell. That is, they keep making the right choices, according to their own lights, but those choices keep making things worse. This forces them to re-examine their core beliefs, which you could have affirmed or changed.

I have trouble with character, too. That's why I spend most of my time working on that aspect of story telling. The rest comes fairly easily. Except for mystery. I couldn't plant a red herring if you handed me the fish and dug the hole.

 

[Night Gardener]

I think... if the original government that he was in service to was reasonably honorable (the before times) that would help tremendously to understand the MCs predicament / motivations. If the old empire has acquiesed to join with another less-reputable regime to spare defeat ( think Roman expansion... " join and there are some perks, and you can keep the majority of your laws and culture. Resist and the Romans will crush you" kind of deal ) then the Original Emperor (OE) made a choice to spare his people from torment, defeat and death. Maybe the allegiance is the lesser of two evils, and like the Romans of old, the OE remains in power of his people, but his power must be in service to the New Regime (tribute).

The New Emperor should probably be a Populist outwardly, but inwardly duplicitous. If you make the correct group of would-be resistors happy, you can get away with other abuses on the sly.

A plot to kill the OE would be to dissolve the OE government (laws and culture) inside the New Regime. If the New Regime is brutal, they'll get tired of pretending to tolerate ideals and laws that aren't in line with their ways of operating. Your MC is witnessing the descent into what will surely become martial law and the total subjugation/ exploitation of his people. Your MC would realize that the last line of defense of his people would be the OE and the heirs to that seat of power, who is holding the symbolic truce between these forces together. If the OE is gone, the government would implode.

I'm sure this mystical warrior of yours would be next on the list of " last line of defenses to be conquered."

There should also be a great deal of culture shock that your MC finds reviling and dishonorable that's being slowly injected into his peripheral culture from the New Regime influences. I'm not sure what your MC should find disagreeable, but infringing on individual civil liberties and justice is usually a great place to start. Perhaps the treatment of his lady-interest is what finally makes him snap?

Maybe, at every level of government that's supposed to remain with the OEs governance is slowly being taken over by agents of the New Regime. Police officers walking the beat, are not locals anymore. They don't help anybody but their "own kind". They abuse their authority and brutalize communities. Then, laws get passed favoring the peoples of the New Regime, etc. Their rights are slowly --and then quickly--- being eroded.

If you have a Sherlock type character, he could deduce that the logical next step is a coup and the assassinations of the OE and indigenous law-makers, governers, whatevers. He would probably want to stop this chain of events.

 

[Futhark]

Your MC is going to have to save an institution and a person he finds reprehensible.

True, but it’s not so black and white. It’s as Night Gardener says. The MC’s people are beset on the north and east by ‘barbarians’, and can’t fight the expansion of the empire to the south. Joining them is definitely the lesser of two evils, as they continue to govern their own lands and keep their culture. The new emperor is rather progressive, tolerant of other cultures, but his position is more precarious. Hardliners in his own court limit what he can do, and this is linked to the plot to kill him. However, they think they are going to take power when if fact they are pawns of the master villain to create chaos. He wants all his enemies to destroy each other and he doesn’t care how many sacrifices there are.

The new empire isn’t as bad as I’ve implied. This is the MC’s point of the view, the culture shock. There are plenty of things in his culture that the empire find reprehensible too. This will be a part of the MC’s journey, taking a hard look at the flaws of his people. He eventually works with people that his culture consider inherently evil, just because of their blood. That’s always been his line in the sand, where he compromises his honour and social status to become the hero that is needed.

Finally, yes, I will have to be careful not to shoehorn his backstory to fit the plot. I’ll keep that in mind.

Thanks.

 

[Futhark]

 

[Futhark]

That’s an image I found on Pinterest that resembles my MC. Unfortunately I don’t know who the artist is, but it’s definitely not me.

 

[Miles Lacey]

Looking at the ideas you have I would suggest that when your MC killed the official he realised the official was just a cog in a system that was fundamentally rotten but he has no idea about what to do except that things can't stay the same and doing nothing isn't an option. He knows that there has to be something better but he doesn't know what so, in order to answer that question, he starts a journey. In the course of that journey he learns of a plot to kill the Emperor. As a result of what he learns he becomes conflicted. His oath to serve and protect the Empire and Emperor conflicts with the desire to see real change that the killing of the Emperor would achieve. However, while doing the shit work for these plotters, he begins to realise these people are not interested in what's best for the people. Their motives are darker. This leads him to conclude that the Emperor is the lesser evil and takes the appropriate measures.

 

[Futhark]

bare with me.

Ha ha. I meant bear with me. Didn’t mean to imply get naked with me. Honest.

 

[CupofJoe]

That’s an image I found on Pinterest that resembles my MC. Unfortunately I don’t know who the artist is, but it’s definitely not me.

Gao Haotong - ArtStation
Other cool images too.