What is character’s goal in a story.
A character’s goal in a story is a specific desire, need or whatever the character is trying to achieve throughout the whole narrative, this goal serves as the driving force behind the actions and decisions made by the character throughout the whole story.
The character’s goal is what motivates them to strive for what they want, to achieve, and to make your story interesting enough, you must concentrate of creating the 2 main characters, that is the protagonist and antagonist; and give them opposing goals in the whole story.
This trick revolves around giving your protagonist a specific goal that opposes that of the antagonist who will create obstacles that will prevent the protagonist from achieving that goal.
Both the actions of the protagonist to achieve his goals and that of the protagonist to prevent him from doing so will create a tension and conflict that will drive the whole story forward.
Basically, finding your character’s goal is a very challenging but crucial part of the screenwriting process, that is why I have taken the time in this article to reveal the key steps that will help you to find a goal for your character.
So without further ado, let us get to see those key steps.
Key steps to finding your character’s goal in a story.
Below are the key steps to finding your character’s goal in a story:
- Consider the theme of your story.
- Know what motivates your character.
- Understand the conflict surrounding your character.
- Know the risk involved.
- Identify your character’s emotional demand.
- The benefit of achieving this goal.
1. Consider the theme of your story.
The first key step to finding your character’s goal in a story is to consider the theme of your story, and you can do so by asking yourself the following questions:
- What theme should am I exploring in my story?
- How does my character’s goal relate to this theme?
Both questions above will help you to create a character’s goal that aligns with the theme of your story and in so doing add depth and meaning to your whole narrative.
For example, if you are writing a romance movie, you can create two character’s who are struggling to fall in love with a particular lady who is from an influential or wealthy background.
Now both character’s have a common goal of trying to gain the lady’s love, but one of them is doing so from he angle of love while the other does so for some financial gain.
2. Know what motivates your character.
To create a goal for your character, you must know what motivates him or her, that is to say, you must know why that character is trying to achieve this particular or set of goals.
For instance, in the example we showed above, the other character tries to fall in love with the wealthy lady simply because he loves her while the other is trying to do so for financial gain.
3. Understand the conflict surrounding your character.
Another way to create your character’s goal in a story is to understand the conflict that surrounds your character. That is to say, you must know the obstacles and challenges your character is going to face in the story.
Traditionally, you must have 2 main types of characters known as the protagonist and antagonist who are trying to achieve something in the entire story, and in order to achieve this something, one of them, that is the antagonist must try to create obstacles that will obstruct the protagonist from it in the hope that he will be the one to achieve it.
But i the end it is the protagonist who has good intentions must be the one to achieve this particular goal.
Take the instance of the romance movie we used as an example above, it is the character who truly loves the lady that will finally win her love.
But you can make the story more interesting by allowing the villain win the lady’s love but lose it afterwards for the hero.
4. Know the risk involved.
After understanding the conflict surrounding your character, the next step is to figure out the risk or sacrifice the character must undergo in order to achieve his goal.
To make your story more interesting, make sure the character keeps on failing when attempting these risks and from one failure discovers the next risk until he finally tries the one that will make him triumphant.
5. Identify your character’s emotional demand.
In order to find your character’s goal in a story, you must attach an emotional demand to your character. That is to say, you must clearly discover what kind of need or desire is driving your character’s actions.
For example, is he seeking for love, revenge, liberty, acceptance, redemption etc.
Knowing your character’s emotional demand will help you to understand exactly what he is seeking in the whole narrative.
6. The benefit of achieving this goal.
Another way to find your character’s goal is to clearly outline the benefits attached to that goal, that is what the character is going to gain by achieving the goal.
