What drives my protagonist?

Goals

Your protagonist — and every character who walks onto the page of your novel — must have a goal. As Kurt Vonnegut famously said, “Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.” Why? Because if your character has no goal, there’s nothing to move your story forward. In fact, there won’t be a story at all. The reader wants to see your protagonist working towards something.

To identify your protagonist’s goals, ask yourself: What are their deepest desires? What do they want for themselves more than anything else in the world? They should have an external goal (something we can see them working towards in the physical sense) and an internal goal (something that they may or may not be aware of but that will fill a deep internal need arising from past experiences).

All this being said, a protagonist with a goal doesn’t make a story.

Motivation

The reason the character wants something is as equally important as the goal itself. Even if all your protagonist wants is a glass of water, the reader will want to know why they want it. Making your protagonist’s motivation clear will help the reader connect to them on a deep emotional level. That connection and the reader’s understanding of what drives the character will have the reader rooting for the protagonist and cheering them along; they’ll want to see them achieve their goals.

Think of your own goals and aspirations and consider the reasons you want those things. It’s our history, our past experiences that shape us and make us into the people we are today. And it’s the same with our characters. Though they are fictional, it should be as if they are real people.

Conflict

Once you have engaged your reader by making her goals and motivation clear, you will need to keep them engaged by putting obstacles in the protagonist’s way as they journey towards their goals, hindering their efforts to achieve them. Those obstacles will create conflict, forcing the protagonist to make difficult decisions and choices. This builds tension and propels the story forward.

Goal-Motivation-Conflit (GMC)

This combination of goal, motivation and conflict is otherwise known as a character’s GMC. Your protagonist will need to have an external GMC and an internal GMC.

• ❤ What is my protagonist’s external GMC?

Your protagonist’s external GMC is the force that drives your plot forward. They will take definitive, visible action towards achieving their external goal (e.g. save the kidnapped child, find the treasure, solve the mystery) and there will be a point at which the protagonist knows whether they’ve succeeded or failed.

• ❤ What is my protagonist’s internal GMC?

The internal GMC forms the basis for your character’s development or emotional journey. The character’s progress towards and achievement of the internal goal (a deep-seated want, need or desire, e.g. to be loved, to prove oneself, to belong) will ensure they are a different person by the story’s end.