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Writing Tips: Character Motivations

There are many ways to build believable characters with complex motivations. Here’s what to keep in mind:

Character notebook. A character’s backstory colors everything the character wants, and what they’re willing to do to get it. Create a character notebook for your novel’s protagonist, where you can collect ideas for your main character, big or small. Include traits, attributes, impactful events, and objectives that you can always reference when exploring the character’s motivations. Obviously, this will not be published, so go as in-depth as you’d like.

Internal monologue. One way to create intimacy with your reader—and to get them to care about your main character—is to use internal monologue to allow the reader to see a character’s thoughts as they happen, laying their motivations bare.

Moral grey area. When creating motivations for heroes and villains, a key principle to remember is that making a decision between good and evil is never really a choice. All humans will choose what is good based on how they see it in their own story. You must elaborate on why your villain is choosing his own good (which to readers appears evil). This is where your moral gray area becomes important. ⚜ Morally Grey Characters

Complex character. Usually, the bad guy’s motivations will create a crisis for your hero, so spend time crafting a thoughtful character. Every villain needs to have his own morality. If a villain spends part of the novel killing people, you need to give him or her believable reasons for doing so. Make the reader understand exactly what desperation or belief has driven him to it.

Leave space in your character descriptions. Remember that the way you present your character speaks to what that person’s motivations are as much as what they look like or how they dress. Be spare with the words you use to describe a person or a scene. The more elaborate you try to be the more you betray your own biases into the text. You want to leave space for the reader to fill in the blanks.

Switch a character’s motivations. Real people change their minds all the time, for any number of reasons. Part of creating a believable character arc might involve a motivation change—when the characters’ desires shift to accommodate new information, for example.

Story pacing. Utilizing elements of time and pacing, like a ticking clock, is a great motivator often deployed in the thriller genre. You’ll find that desperation will very quickly distill a character’s goals.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Sociologist Maslow’s pyramid places things like self-actualization and self-esteem above more tangible, concrete needs like food and safety, might be a good place to start when building believable motivations for complex characters. Only after someone satisfies their needs at the base of the pyramid are they driven to consider the more intangible, philosophical concerns at the top.

Source ⚜ Notes & References ⚜ Writing Templates ⚜ 50 Motivations Character Goals & Motivation ⚜ External & Internal Journey

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How to make a fic or writing longer how to add stuff without making it boring

Writing Ideas: Adding Details to your Story

Keep engaging the reader every few pages. Do not spend the first act introducing your characters. Let the reader discover your characters as they are catapulted into the concept. Let the reader learn their motivations and arcs as they are bombarded by the conflict that you are hopefully throwing them into from the get-go. Let there be a mystery to it. Why show your whole hand when you can keep a reader invested and engaged by slowly peeling away the layers of the character as they deal with the conflict and overall concept? Continue to build and build and build, whether it’s with the laughs, the drama, the screams, the mystery, the thrills, the action, etc. Offer as many twists and turns as you can. Lead that reader towards something, only to pull the rug out from underneath them just when they feel that they know where you’re going with it.

The HCM Plotting Method

List the Heart-Clutching Moments you’ve already thought of—you know, those pivotal points in your story that will evoke all the intensity of that “look behind you!” response in your readers.

Think of more.

Construct your story around them. Don’t focus on your loosely formed storyline. Focus on the key points in your story.

What Is an HCM? Some examples:

Love at first sight (Marius Pontmercy meets Cosette)

A huge moral lapse (Judas takes the money)

Murder (Miles Archer’s sets Sam Spade in motion)

Death by other means (Injun Joe starves to death in the cave)

A refusal of grace (Mayella Ewell sticks to her story in spite of taking the courtroom oath)

Nature gone wild (shark dines on first recreational swimmer)

Someone standing up to corruption (Shane picks up his gun again)

A change of heart, for good or ill (Michael Corleone offers to kill Sollozzo and Captain McCluskey)

An act of depraved violence (Bill Sykes cudgels Nancy)

Betrayal (Sandy puts a stop to her mentor Jean Brodie)

Forgiveness (Melanie insists Scarlett join her in the receiving line)

A revelation (Pip’s secret benefactor is none other than … !)

HCMs can be active, whole scenes. Some examples:

A lifesaving attempt

A chase

A battle

A seduction

A caper

Make a list of Heart-Clutching Moments and put them on index cards in rough order. Then you can build an outline based on any form you desire, be it classical drama, farce, or anything in between. If you get stuck, do any of the following:

Start writing one of your HCM scenes. Immediately the scene itself should prompt ideas, perhaps for new courses of action or even new characters.

Write deeper into an HCM scene you’ve written already. You’ll likely find yourself coming up with bridges between scenes—and thinking of more elements to enhance your story.

Look for places to add conflict, suffering, or frustration.

Example: Shakespeare wanted to take Macbeth from conquering hero to murderous traitor whose decapitation at the hands of one of his countrymen is the only possible, imaginable end.

How does he do it? Reread the play and you’ll realize that one HCM leads to the next, fast and furious: The witches’ stunning prophecies, Macbeth’s realization that he could be king, his wife’s corrupt ambition, one murder, two more murders, and more upon that, and prophesy again, and insanity, and suicide … all in the space of 98 pages!

Introduce a ticking clock. A ticking clock is an important element that ramps up pressure on your characters and piques your readers’ curiosity as to how your protagonist can possibly succeed. Set up big promises and obstacles early in a narrative and layer in a time crunch to make a character’s predicament seem dire.

Weave subplots into your narrative. Use subplots effectively to add variety and texture to your narrative and explore characters and backstory. When used well, subplots can artfully pose and answer key questions and flesh out characters.

Add dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is one of the many literary devices that can keep your reader engaged and increase the suspense. If a reader is aware of impending plot points that your characters are not, you can foreshadow plot twists and raise questions in your reader’s mind as to how your characters will deal with the trouble that lies ahead.

Invest in the details. Good writing generally contains sensory details and specific observations that remind readers of real life. A longer story can be much more powerful and less boring with detailed descriptions of the environment in which it takes place.

Open loops. This expands a bit on the idea of hooks and page-turning chapter endings, but the concept here is much broader. Basically the idea is to open boxes … and then take your sweet time in getting around to closing them. If you’re interested in a situation and the story cuts that situation off without resolving it, you’ll do that OH COME ON thing and then keep reading. You can’t rest until you close the loop. So if the story is well-told, you’ll just keep looking for that dropped loop … even if it takes chapters to pay off. It takes many chapters to find out what did happen, and your readers just keep blasting through them, cursing us all the while.

Relentless pacing. Take your time and meander when writing your book. What happens, happens, and try not to rush it. Characters talk and the reader learns plot points. On the contrary, let your readers keep asking, “What happens next?” The answer to that question needs to be exciting. Threatening. Maybe violent. Don't let your characters have much time to catch their breath, because the goal is to keep your readers breathless.

Learning from the Classics. Some Examples:

Armadale by Wilkie Collins, 1864 - Armadale was regarded by author T.S. Eliot as "the best of [his] romances" and includes Lydia Gwilt, a character considered as one of the most astonishing wicked female villains in literature. Drawing on scandalous newspaper headlines, Collins creates a story of confused identities, inherited curses, romantic rivalries, espionage, and murder – making for an action-packed 752 pages.

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, translated by Norman Denny, 1862 - Adapted into one of the most successful musicals of all time, Les Misérables’ running time in London’s West End is an impressive 2 hours 50 minutes. But for a more immersive experience, try the original novel – a full 1,232 pages of injustice, heroism, and love in 19th-century France.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, 1846 - (1,240 pages) On the day of his wedding, Edmond Dantes, master mariner, is arrested in Marseille on trumped-up charges and spirited away to the cellars of the Chateau d'If, an impregnable sea fortress in which he is imprisoned indefinitely. Escaping from the chateau by a series of daring manoeuvres, he unearths a great treasure on the island of Monte Cristo, buried there by a former fellow prisoner who bequeaths to him the secret of its whereabouts. Thus armed with unimaginable wealth and embittered by his long imprisonment, he resolves to devote his life to tracking down and punishing those responsible.

Ulysses by James Joyce, 1922 - It is one thing to write a novel of 1,040 pages, but quite another to dedicate the entire page count to one single day. Ulysses follows characters Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom and his wife Molly across a day in their lives in 1904 Dublin. Dedalus and Bloom, who are are unaware of each other, are trying to find a missing loved one: the former, his long-lost father, and Bloom, despite being childless, for a son.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, 1869 - (1,225 pages) At a glittering society party in St Petersburg in 1805, conversations are dominated by the prospect of war. Terror swiftly engulfs the country as Napoleon's army marches on Russia, and the lives of three young people are changed forever. The stories of quixotic Pierre, cynical Andrey and impetuous Natasha interweave with a huge cast, from aristocrats and peasants to soldiers and Napoleon himself. In War and Peace, Tolstoy entwines grand themes - conflict and love, birth and death, free will and faith - with unforgettable scenes of nineteenth-century Russia, to create a magnificent epic of human life in all its imperfection and grandeur.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 ⚜ More: Notes ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs ⚜ On Pacing

Here are some tips and ideas I found from different sources. Choose which ones you would like to incorporate in your story. Hope this helps with your writing!

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Writing Notes: Anti-Villain

An anti-villain - (unlike their evil counterparts) are not complete monsters.

This makes them particularly hard to hate, despite all their terrible deeds.

In the character’s minds, they have justifiable, noble goals—how they go about achieving those goals is what eventually becomes a problem for the hero.

Their means don’t justify their desired ends.

Every villain has their own morality.

A key principle to remember is that making a decision between good and evil is never really a choice: All humans will choose good as they see it.

Your villain chooses their own good, which to readers, and the hero, appears evil in opposition.

This creates a moral dilemma at the heart of the novel’s conflict.

Types of Anti-Villains

Villainy comes in shades of gray.

One that starts out good. This anti-villain is a good person who has been pushed to the brink of their personal limits.

The one you feel for. A sympathetic anti-villain may do bad things, but they are ultimately a product of their circumstances or environment. They may have had a terrible upbringing, where people acted evil towards them as children making them evil as adults. They deserve to seek different circumstances, and were their means not so terrible, you might root for them.

The one who means well. When good intentions go crooked, and heroic qualities like tenacity and cleverness are aimed at the wrong target, you get your “well-meaning” anti-villain, who often takes things a step too far in pursuit of a noble goal. These anti-villains typically have a plan to save the world, with many, many casualties along the way in the name of the “greater good.” Think of Marvel’s “Mad Titan” Thanos and his plan to clear half the universe in order for the remaining half to thrive.

The one in the wrong place at the wrong time. This designated “villain” in name only typically falls into this category as a result of the existence of the hero. Their acts might be totally justified—vengeance for a loved one, or carrying out the corruption required of them by their job—but the protagonist doesn’t give them a free pass.

Examples of Anti-Villains

Sometimes, the only difference between the “bad guys” and the “good guys” is a point of view.

Carrie from Stephen King’s book Carrie is a sympathetic anti-villain. As a teenager in a small town, she is an outcast because of her beliefs and the way she dresses. Bullies at school make fun of her incessantly, building to the point where she turns her rage into telekinesis (mind power) to kill everyone in her school, then goes on a killing rampage through the town.

While The Joker in Batman is fairly straightforward in his villainy, it’s his tragic backstories—at different points, either driven insane by grief after the death of his wife, or disfigured after a fall into a vat of poisonous chemicals—that makes him compelling to watch. The audience suspects that if they were pushed to the edge of their sanity, they might act in the same way—and that’s all it takes to create an anti-villain worth of the caped crusader.

Anti-Villain vs. Anti-Hero

While an anti-villain might be a villain with some redeeming features, an anti-hero is a heroic character without the conventional charms.

They might do the right thing, but mostly out of self-interest.

They are often portrayed as a principled, but somewhat isolated figure, and their heroism is usually a product of their surroundings and circumstances.

In some narratives, the anti-hero may be subject to a shift of perspective—like the twist in Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl that reveals the truth about Amy Dunne’s actions—that paints them as an antagonist.

Other examples of an anti-hero include:

Tom Ripley of The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) by Patricia Highsmith

Huckleberry Finn in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) by Mark Twain

Tony Soprano of The Sopranos (1999)

Walter White of Breaking Bad (2008)

Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2008) by Stieg Larsson

Source ⚜ More: References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

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Writing Ideas: 50 Motivations

Examples of motivations your characters may have. They want to...

Accomplish a goal for the good of others, but loses sight of it over time

Assassinate the tyrannical king/president

Atone for a wrongdoing that led to a fracture in their relationship with someone

Be loved and admired, and go to extreme lengths to gain it

Be happy, but don't know how

Be remembered and will commit atrocities in order to achieve that

Be the person they envy

Become immortal

Check off a bucket list before their time is up

Destroy the world and start over

Develop a vaccine to beat your rival

Do evil because they love evil

Educate others about a disease before it spreads throughout the city

Ensure that no one will ever hurt or take advantage of them again

Experience various kinds of pleasure, often at the expense of others

Fight against something that caused them to suffer in their past

Find a kidnapped loved one, whatever the cost

Find a meaningful place in the world

Find a muse to inspire them

Find out who murdered a loved one

Fulfill a prophecy

Get rich before their father dies

Get noticed by their mysterious new neighbour

Go against a prophecy and prove it wrong

Help everyone, all the time

Humiliate their opponents

Improve their physique/looks/abilities

Journey to a faraway land to start over

Learn a new skill that could bring them closer to someone

Lift a generational curse

Live up to their family name and bring credit to their family

Make a scientific breakthrough that would save their partner's life

Make other people fall into despair and crush their hopes

Prevent overpopulation by any means necessary

Protect a vulnerable person

Prove their opponent's hypothesis wrong

Raise their self-esteem by adopting an egotistical attitude

Reconnect with a long lost sister

Recover from an illness that they have been told has no cure

Remain beautiful forever

Remodel the world based on their old-fashioned beliefs and/or interests

Resurrect a loved one who has died

Retrieve a stolen family heirloom

Return to their hometown, and fix up their old house

Search for love, in any form

See the person they love be happy, even at the risk of their own happiness

Solve a hometown mystery

Stop people from having fun

Watch someone else succeed in their stead

Win a local contest

Sources: 1 2 ⚜ Writing Notes & References Character Goals & Motivation ⚜ External & Internal Journey

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Active Reading

Active reading - reading with a purpose.

When it comes to critical analysis, the purpose of active reading is to familiarize yourself with your primary text and secondary sources to create a thorough and accurate analysis.

You can engage in active reading by paying attention to the type, author, audience, and purpose of a source.

Type

In writing, texts are often categorized based on the form, style, and purpose they share.

Examples: Fiction, nonfiction, horror, fantasy, and mystery.

Each type of writing typically follows a set of rules that can help us better understand the author’s purpose and the meaning of the text itself.

When reading your text, consider how the type of text shapes your understanding of it by asking the following questions:

What type of text is it (e.g., essay, play, comedy, romance, etc.)? Keep in mind that a text may have more than one type.

What stylistic or literary elements are important to that type of text (e.g., imagery, rhyme scheme, dialogue, etc.)?

How does the type of text impact the author’s message? Is that type of text appropriate for the author’s purpose?

Does the author use any stylistic or literary elements uncommon to that type of text?

How does the type of text enhance or take away from the author’s message?

Author

Authors are the people who created a text.

An author’s personal experiences often impact the type and content of his or her work.

Researching an author’s background helps us recognize and understand what influenced his or her work.

As you read through a text, ask yourself the following:

Who created the text?

When did the author create the text?

Where did the author create the text?

In what context was the primary text written (e.g., social, cultural, political, economic)?

Are there any significant events in the author’s life that may have influenced the type and content of the text?

Audience

The audience consists of anyone who reads a text.

Usually, an author considers his or her intended audience when making decisions about a source’s type, tone, and content.

When reading a source, think about how the audience shapes the author’s decisions by asking questions such as:

Who is the intended audience of the source (e.g., artists, scientists, nobles, etc.)?

How does the audience view the author (e.g., credible, biased, etc.)?

How would the audience react to the content of the source (e.g., agree, disagree, indifference, etc.)? Why would the audience react that way?

Are there any other audiences the author may not have considered?

Purpose

Purpose is an author’s reason for writing a text.

3 of the most common examples of purpose include to persuade, to inform, and to entertain.

Identifying an author’s purpose for writing is useful for determining whether an author’s text is written effectively or not.

As you read your sources, consider whether the author accomplishes his or her purpose by asking a few questions:

1. Why did the author write the text (e.g., to inform, to persuade, to entertain, to critique, etc.)? (Note: An author may have multiple purposes for writing.)

2. What is the main idea, theme, or argument of the source?

3. How does the author attempt to accomplish his or her purpose?

How does the author use ethos, logos, and/or pathos?

How does the author use literary or stylistic elements (e.g., character, symbolism, setting, etc.)?

4. Does the author effectively accomplish his or her purpose? Why or why not?

Additional Tips on Active Reading

It’s also useful to read your text from different perspectives.

The first time, read as a consumer. You are reading for enjoyment.

The second time, read as an academic. You are reading to learn and understand.

The third time, read as a critic. You are reading to question both the text’s meaning and the author’s decisions.

NOTE

It’s a good idea to take notes and record your thoughts throughout your active reading process.

Actively reading your sources helps you consider them from more than one perspective.

Active reading also fosters critical thinking.

Once you finish actively reading your sources, you can begin drafting your critical analysis.

Source

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So, the other day, when I was discussing AO3's policy on solicitation, a tumblr user came at me saying that AO3's "no monetization/solicitation" rules were "bullshit" because nexus mods allows fan created mods to get paid.

Look at me.

Look at me right now.

AO3 protects you.

AO3 protects you and your works. 

It protects your works from copyright strikes and DCMA takedowns.

It protects your work from advertisers.

It protects your work from overzealous legal challenges.

It protects your right to post adult content.

AO3 is non-profit and AO3 will never try to use you or your work to make a profit for themselves and AO3 will go to bat for you if someone tries to legally challenge you or your works.

Please respect AO3 and its mission.

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Other Words to Use (Emotions)

Carefully chosen words have the power to bring a person or story to life and impact the readers' impression. If you’re like most people, though, you often use the same words when writing about emotions. Here are some commonly used words to describe emotions and feelings as well as many alternatives that may help your readers better understand what you're trying to convey.

Happy

HIGH excited, thrilled, ecstatic, elated, intoxicated, captivated, euphoric, joyous, jubilant, overjoyed MODERATE cheerful, upbeat, optimistic, enthusiastic, lively, gleeful, joyful, peppy, delighted, tickled, hopeful LOW merry, light, jolly, up, glad, pleased, blissful, chipper, content, perky, playful

Sad

HIGH grieved, crushed, gloomy, hopeless, heartbroken, devastated, despairing, distraught, heavy-hearted, miserable MODERATE dejected, dismayed, hurt, hurting, disillusioned, downcast, forlorn, glum, cheerless, melancholy LOW down, disappointed, blue, discouraged, low, somber, sorry, unhappy

Angry

HIGH furious, raging, irate, hateful, incensed, hostile, outraged, indignant, exasperated MODERATE aggravated, irritated, irked, upset, annoyed, offended, sulky, ticked off, fuming, sullen, provoked LOW perturbed, hassled, bothered, fuss, fret, displeased, peeved

Scared

HIGH: terrified, overwhelmed, panicked, petrified, alarmed, fearful MODERATE: worried, tense, dread, shaken, anxious, afraid, panicky, panicked LOW: startled, surprised, uneasy, edgy, apprehensive, hesitant, uncomfortable

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How to Read

some references for the writing tip: "read a lot" / "read widely"

Active Reading ⚜ Tips for Active Reading

Critical Reading ⚜ Identifying Character Descriptions

Evaluating Sources ⚜ Primary Sources ⚜ Source Integration

Narrative Elements ⚜ Note Taking ⚜ Read like a Writer

Scientific Article ⚜ Your Reading Journal

More: Writing Tips & Advice ⚜ Editing ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

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please don't let the squid game fandom die again

please don't let the squid game fandom die again

please don't let the squid game fandom die again

please don't let the squid game fandom die again

please don't let the squid game fandom die again

please don't let the squid game fandom die again

please don't let the squid game fandom die again

please don't let the squid game fandom die again

please don't let the squid game fandom die again

please don't let the squid game fandom die again

please don't let the squid game fandom die again

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I assure you: somebody, somewhere, is on the exact same wavelength as you are.

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PSA

Just a heads up, there are bots going around on AO3 accusing people of using AI. Considering the timing, this is likely AI bros' retaliation for AO3 users calling them out for scraping their work. Examples of what you might be sent:

Screenshots from here.

If you get a comment like this, just report for spam and delete.

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Writing References: Character Development

50 Questions ⚜ Backstory ⚜ Character-driven Story

Basics: How to Write a Character ⚜ A Story-Worthy Hero

Basics: Character-Building ⚜ Character Creation

Types of Characters: Key Characters ⚜ Literary Characters ⚜ Flat & Round Characters ⚜ Morally Grey ⚜ Narrators ⚜ Allegorical Characters ⚜ Archetypes ⚜ Stereotypical Characters

Worksheets: Backstory ⚜ Character ⚜ Kill your Characters ⚜ Antagonist; Villain; Fighting ⚜ Change; Adding Action; Conflict ⚜ Character Sketch & Bible ⚜ Protagonist & Antagonist ⚜ Name; Quirks; Flaws; Motivation ⚜ "Interviewing" your Characters ⚜ "Well-Rounded" Character

Personality Traits

5 Personality Traits (OCEAN) ⚜ 16 Personality Traits (16PF)

600+ Personality Traits ⚜ 170 Quirks

East vs. West Personalities ⚜ Trait Theories

Tips/Editing

Character Issues ⚜ Character Tropes for Inspiration

"Strong" Characters ⚜ Unlikable to Likable

Tips from Rick Riordan

Writing Notes

Binge ED ⚜ Hate ⚜ Love ⚜ Identifying Character Descriptions

Childhood Bilingualism ⚜ Children's Dialogue ⚜ On Children

Culture ⚜ Culture: Two Views ⚜ Culture Shock

Dangerousness ⚜ Flaws ⚜ Fantasy Creatures

Emotional Intelligence ⚜ Genius (Giftedness)

Emotions (1) (2) ⚜ Anger ⚜ Fear ⚜ Happiness ⚜ Sadness

Emotional Universals ⚜ External & Internal Journey

Goals & Motivations ⚜ Grammar Development ⚜ Habits

Facial Expressions ⚜ Jargon ⚜ Swearing & Taboo Expressions

Happy/Excited Body Language ⚜ Laughter & Humor

Health ⚜ Frameworks of Health ⚜ Memory

Mutism ⚜ Shyness ⚜ Parenting Styles ⚜ Generations

Psychological Reactions to Unfair Behavior

Rhetoric ⚜ The Rhetorical Triangle ⚜ Logical Fallacies

Thinking ⚜ Thinking Styles ⚜ Thought Distortions

Uncommon Words: Body ⚜ Emotions

Villains ⚜ Voice & Accent

More References: Plot ⚜ World-building ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

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the suffering never ends

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The stages of reading through old drafts

"I didn't put spaces after ANY commas?"

"WHERE'S THE PUNCTUATION?!"

"Wait where are the characters?"

"Annnd another spelling mistake..."

"*every noise of cringe known to man*"

"Disney ahh resolution"

"...at least I can do better now" T-T

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*writes two paragraphs after months of literally nothing and it took three hours*

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