Motivation

I find it funny that my kids will never willingly pick up anything off the floor, but when the chocolate chip bag spilled all over the kitchen, each child jumped up immediately to help me. They couldn’t shove the chocolate in their mouths fast enough.  It made me laugh, and I had to take a picture.  Who knew that all I needed was a little chocolate to get them moving?

The characters in our stories are just like my kids.  They need the right motivation to get them going.  They need a little chocolate.  We as writers need to figure out the driving motivation behind our characters.  We need to know what drives them.  What excites them.  What gets them moving.  Motivation is important in stories.  It helps determine how the plot unfolds, and brings out conflict.  Without motivation, the story falls flat.

So it’s time to spill a little bit of chocolate on the floor, and see if you can find your character’s motivation.