What the hell does my character actually want? Does that ever feel like a loaded question to you? It certainly does to me sometimes. So if you've ever struggled to untangle your character's wants versus what they need versus what they long for, or you get confused between conscious goals and unconscious goals, you're not alone, and I want to reassure you that you're not bad at character development. Welcome to the Write It Scared podcast. I'm your host, Stacy Fraser, a formally repressed creative soul, turned fiction writer, story editor, and author accelerator certified fiction book coach. At Write It Scared, we tell the truth about why writing a novel is so hard by acknowledging that most writers grapple with two stories: the one they want to put on the page to the best of their ability, and the often subconscious internal story that prevents them from doing it. This show is designed to help you identify and rewrite the internal narrative holding you back while you discover and write the story you want to tell and learn all the tools to help you do that successfully. Join me each week for a new episode where we'll talk about writing to deepen our understanding of the craft and of ourselves as writers. Writing a novel is an inside job that we do not do alone. Welcome to Red It Scared. I'm glad you're here. Let's dive in. Hey writer, welcome back to the Red It Scared podcast. I'm your host, Stacey Fraser, and this is where we talk about the brave and messy act of writing our novels so that we can do it with more clarity, more confidence, and not feel so alone. Today we're gonna dig into a craft topic. It's a deceptively simple question that can completely derail your draft if you don't have a clear answer. Ask me how I know. And that question is, what the hell does my character actually want? Does that ever feel like a loaded question to you? It certainly does to me sometimes. So if you've ever struggled to untangle your character's wants versus what they need versus what they long for, or you get confused between conscious goals and unconscious goals, you're not alone. And I want to reassure you that you're not bad at character development. This is not your fault. Here's the deal: there's a ton of writerly lingo out there to describe the concepts of your character's needs and what they want and what they yearn for. And all of that can lead to confusion when you're trying to figure out what's motivating your characters to take action or what kind of action they should take, given the circumstance you have them in. And I don't know about you, but I've definitely got these things mixed up in the past. So what has helped me more than anything is that I've learned to ditch the word want almost entirely for the most part when it comes to character development. And I know, I know that kind of sounds like blasphemy, right? But not really. Hang with me. Today I'm gonna talk about a more simplistic framework that's gonna help you separate what drives the plot from what drives transformation, and then I'll show you how to breed them together so that you can create a story that has forward momentum, is structurally sound and emotionally grounded. So today I want you to let go of the word want. And instead, we're gonna embrace the terms goals, desires, and needs. And we're gonna talk about why knowing the difference might actually be the key piece that's missing in your story logic. So if you take nothing else away from today's episode, please let it be this. Goals will drive your plot, desire drives transformation, and the need is the bridge that the character has to cross to achieve their goals and desires. Okay, so let's start by talking about goals. Goals are practical things, external things, things that you can see. Your character's goal is a concrete thing. The character knows they want it, they know what steps they could take to bring them closer to that goal, and the reader can track the progress. A goal could be as small as getting up in the morning to squeeze in a workout, or it could be a massive thing like slaying a dragon. Either way, goals are external, they're conscious, they're measurable, and they can change or evolve as the character progresses through the story. Goals are what create part of the engine that drives the story forward. So, for example, in my novel, my character's goal is to discover what's happened to her missing sister. So the concrete steps to achieve the goal might be interviewing people, revisiting last-known whereabouts, pushing authorities for answers. As you can see, those goals and those concrete steps result in moments that I can then show the reader, and the reader can gauge whether or not this character is getting closer or farther away from her goal. Here are some other examples of goals from popular characters that you're probably very familiar with. Let's look at Shrek. Shrek's external goal is to rescue Princess Fiona to get his swamp back. At least that's his concrete goal in the beginning of the story. He's gotta go fight this dragon, or else he won't get his swamp back. And no swamp means no solitude. And also the dude, what's his name? Lord Farquart will kill him if he doesn't do this. Okay, let's look at Katniss from the Hunger Games. Katniss Everdeen has the external goal to survive the Hunger Games so she can go back to her family and continue to be their primary caretaker. And a last example, Violet Sorengale from Fourth Wing has the external goal to survive her first year at Bagsgath. I never know if I say that right. But anyway, survive at the War College once she is forced into the Dragon Riders Quadrant when she initially wanted to be a scholar. So basically it's survivor. So characters' goals and the steps that they take or the trials that they endure to achieve them will result in concrete events or moments of action within the story. Those events become the building blocks of your plot. Pretty cool, right? Okay, now let's talk about desire. Desire is the emotional side of the character, the internal longing, and it lives beneath their concrete goals. And goals and desires don't always line up. Sometimes they are completely at odds with each other. Desire is not really a practical thing. It's emotional, it's often unconscious, and it's messy, and it might be a little scary for the character. There really isn't any certainty to desire like there is with a goal. There's no clear path of execution. So desire is more like a wish or an ache or a longing. And it might be something your character hopes could happen, or it might be something they believe that could never happen. Now, sometimes your character is aware of what they desire and sometimes they're not. Sometimes they deny they have this desire. For example, in a romance, you might have a character who thinks to themselves, I wish I could find the love of my life, but I'm not worthy of that. Other times you're gonna have characters who are completely oblivious to the thing that they desire, like it's not even on their radar, they have no clue. Or they think they want the opposite of that desire. And they might go so far as to deny the importance of the desire completely. For example, in a romance, you might have a character who's like, loves absolutely stupid people who fall in love, they just get hurt, and it's not worth anybody's time. Desire does not necessarily spur direct action the way a goal does. And here's the takeaway but the character's belief about whether they deserve what they desire will quietly shape why they choose the actions that they do in the story. Desires, conscious or unconscious, will shape motivation. So the characters' awareness and belief about what they desire will impact their motivation, and that will impact how they go after their story goals. Let me give you an example from my story. My main character deeply desires to be forgiven for what she's done, but she doesn't believe she's deserving of it, and she doesn't believe other people should trust her. So she acts in opposition to what would fulfill her desire. She lies, she hides, she blames others versus taking responsibility, and she turns away from those in the story that would offer her comfort and help her heal. What my character needs to learn is that she's an imperfect human being, no better, no worse than anybody else, and needs to forgive herself and trust herself to do the right thing at the most difficult moment before she can accept forgiveness from anyone else and move on with her life. So here are some other examples of desire in fiction and how they work in a story. Going back to Shrek, Shrek unconsciously desires love and acceptance. And when I say unconscious, he's an example of a character who believes that letting people in is stupid. And we see him in the beginning of the film doing everything he can to keep people away. But underneath, he craves being accepted for who he is. Looking at Katniss, Katniss Everdeen desires fairness and peace and stability. And she desires those things despite circumstance. And the circumstance is that she's forced into a chaotic and violent world. And though she believes in fairness and peace, she doesn't think it's possible to obtain that. It's kind of like a lip service thing. Like, okay, I believe in fairness and peace, but there's no way that I can get it. So I kind of got to play by the rules that are set for me. But what's interesting with her is that she does adhere to her own set of rules that are governed by what she desires. And because of that, she reshapes the world around her, or at least she begins to in the first book of The Hunger Games. And we see her pursue goals of staying alive, but she does it through the lens of her desires, which are based in fairness and peace. And so that affects her motivation. The result is that she basically goes forward saying, I'm not just here to kill people. I'm here to survive and I'm going to do so and keep my integrity intact as best I can. So she's a bit of an outlier. She doesn't have a huge internal transformation. She's what we call a steadfast character. And again, I'm just speaking about book one in the Hunger Games. But she doesn't really change internally. The world around her does because of the action she takes, because of the way her desires drive her to pursue her goals. That's what's important. Okay, last example on desire. Back to Violet Sorengale from Fourth Wing. She desires to trust her gut and have autonomy instead of doing what her mother wants. The problem is that her mother forces her into the Dragon Rider's quadrant. So she doesn't have autonomy and she doesn't believe she's afforded that at the beginning of the story. It's only later in the story when she realizes that she can exercise her autonomy and trust in different ways. Okay, so why does all this matter? All of this comes back to what a story is really about, and that is transformation, either of a character, of a world, or the situation that they're in. And I love this quote from Lisa Kron's book, Wired for Story. And if you have not read this, I highly recommend you get a copy and put it on your shelf in your craft arsenal. Lisa Cron says that a story is how what happens, which is the plot, affects someone that's your protagonist, who is trying to achieve what turns out to be a difficult goal and how that character changes as a result. The change expresses the character's growth. And that is linked to what they desire and what they need to learn to achieve it. Okay, how do we get to that character transformation? And that brings us into the final element of our framework, which is the need. I want you to think of the character's need as the inner truth they have to learn or that they're gonna refuse to learn in order to pursue their story goal in a way that leads to genuine fulfillment and aligns with their deeper desire. So it's the lesson the character is here to learn if they're going to evolve in a positive way. And often discovering that lesson reveals that their original goal was never really the answer. So take Shrek, for example. Shrek believes that he needs his swamp back to get isolation. But isolation isn't the solution. Isolation was the thing he hid behind. What he needs is to risk vulnerability, open his heart, and allow connection. He has to risk being hurt. Take fourth wing. Violet's need is that she's gotta learn to trust her own judgment and moral compass, even when that means she's defying the systems that raise her. So that inner shift changes how she goes about surviving and striving for power and finding belonging. Quick word on negative arcs and the need. If a character refuses the lesson, they will end the story worse off internally. Even if they achieve their external goal. So they will still have a need, they just won't accept it. They may learn about it, but they may refuse to accept that it applies to them. That's negative character arc. So think characters like Walter White, Tom Ripley, or even like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. These characters are offered moments where they could confront the truth about themselves, but instead they're like, no, thanks. And the result is like power without fulfillment or control without wholeness, and these people don't wind up happy, and some of them often die. So when I have a client who is struggling to identify their character's need, I will often ask them at the beginning of the story, what does your character believe that is quietly hurting them and keeping them from what they truly desire? If you can answer that question, then you found the need. And you found the lesson your character needs to learn, and then you need to design your events, the challenges that the character will endure to help them take steps to learn that lesson. So, big picture, when you see the need as the thing that your character must learn or embody to be more fulfilled by the end of the story, it creates a bridge for them to cross, or refuse, or burn down. And that choice, what they do there, is more than the goal itself. It's actually what shapes the story. So when you understand your character's goals, you can build a compelling plot filled with action and consequences where the reader can either root for your protagonist or cry because they're failing. And when you understand your character's desires and what they need to learn to get what they desire and how that's linked to the external goal they're pursuing, then you can craft an emotional arc that shows how the action they're taking in the plot is going to change them for better or for worse. And when characters and their desires are pitted against each other, you get a whole lot of tension, depth, and conflict, natural conflict. So if you have a character who says no to love, but you put them in a position where you force them to get close to someone and learn to communicate to say survive, and then they wind up falling in love, you get a whole lot of natural resistance and conflict. So the takeaway here is this at the heart of every unforgettable story is really a character who's chasing after a goal. But what keeps readers turning the page is why the character wants the goal, the character's motivation, and how that's linked to their desire and what they need to change about themselves internally in order to achieve the goal or achieve something better. Remember, goals drive your plot, desire gives it depth, and needs are what the character must learn in order to get the thing that truly matters to them. And when you know all of those elements, you can stop writing extraneous scenes. Not that all the scenes that you write you're gonna keep and your first draft's gonna be perfect. That's not gonna happen. But you're definitely gonna be more on target and your characters will become more emotionally complex, more 3D, and become challenged in multiple ways that matter. So the next time you feel stuck in the weeds, I want you to zoom out and ask, okay, in this moment of the story, what is my character's external goal? What do they believe achieving that goal will give them? What do they internally desire right now? Are they even aware of it at this point? And what do they believe that is quietly hurting them and keeping them from achieving that desire? The tension, which is the space between the shiny goal and the aching internal desire, is where the magic lives. That's where the transformation's gonna happen. And that's what your story is truly about. All right, Ryder, thanks for hanging in there with me. I know this was a big topic, but I hope that the idea of throwing away the word want and replacing it with the terms goals, desires, and needs helps you feel a little less overwhelmed about how to approach your story's plot, your character arcs and transformation. And I will link the blog post that accompanies this episode in the show notes so you could go over there and take a look and digest it a little bit more if you need to. And if this episode helped you see that your character's goals and desires and needs are out of alignment and you're thinking, I wish there was a way I could get them help to learn how to apply this to my manuscript. That is what a book coach is for. I work with writers one-on-one and in small groups to develop stories that are structurally sound and emotionally grounded. So you can learn more about working with me as a book coach at my website, writeitscared.co, request a connection call if you want to talk through where you are in the story and what kind of support you might need to help you move forward. All right. You have a great day. I'll see you next week. Thank you for listening to the Write at Scared podcast. If you enjoyed today's show, please make sure to hit the follow button so you never miss an episode. And please leave a review. Reviews help other writers like you find the voices and messages they need to hear to continue to write their stories. Let's lift each other up. Remember, you can be scared and still be unstoppable. I'll see you next week.