Home: Writing for Comic Books: Chapter Three - Character Development: Motivation

Chapter Three
Character Development
(cont'd)

MOTIVATION

Every human is the sum total of his or her experiences. Every time we respond to something, we are drawing on all our previous experiences. When we encounter something outside of our experiences, that is when we feel fear or anxiety.

As you think through your characters, you have to be part writer/creator and part therapist. You have to understand the goals and fears of your characters that drive them to take action. You have to be able to understand each character's motivations. You don't have to like or approve of their motives or actions, but you absolutely have to understand where they come from. There are three key questions with which you can work that will help you build a foundation for strong characterization. The questions come from the work of pioneering psychologist Carl Jung.

• Who are you?

  In Jungian psychotherapy, the therapist asks the client, "Who are you?" Generally, the first answer someone gives to this question is their name, but what does a name really tell you about a person (unless they a character in a Charles Dickens or Ian Fleming story, which most of us are not)? The therapist once again asks, "Who are you?" The patient is not allowed to use the same answer. The purpose of this process is to show the patient that they have many identities--some are thrust upon us by circumstance, some are chosen. We all play different roles in our life: son or daughter, mother, father, lover, best friend, student, teacher, employee, etc. The goal of the questioning is to strip away all the different roles until the client can find out the Who they really are, without the expectations or limitations thrust upon us by circumstance.

  In the superhero genre, we deal with mask-wearing characters. It is worth keeping in mind that we all wear masks all the time. We have our social mask, the face/expression that we wear in order to maintain polite society. We have the faces we wear with our families, lovers, children, employers, annoying drivers, postal workers, etc. The more tired we are, the harder it is to maintain the social mask, and the more our true feelings and thoughts begin to show, and the closer others get to seeing our true selves.

  When designing a mask-wearing character, you must consider why the character wears a mask. Is he our she hiding something or revealing something? Is the mask the true face or the face the character hides behind? Does the mask give the character freedom to do things he or she might never consider when not wearing the mask? Which is the true identity--the mask or the face behind the mask? What is the message that the masked character is trying to send to the people who see the mask? These are important questions in terms of characterization and can also be the starting point for interesting stories.

  Remember that nobody is ever one thing all the time, hence the many faces/masks we wear. The more facets you give your characters, the more storytelling potential you will have and the more interesting your characters will be. In serial fiction, there should always be something more to learn about your character: new skills, new pockets of information, new surprises (that should be logical extensions of what is already established) that will keep your readers intrigued and wanting to learn more.

• What do you want?

  This is the question--the motivation(s)--that drives all human activity. The deeper we go into asking who we are, the truer our wants should be. For example, as someone's employee, you may want to be on time for work, but as someone's lover, you may wish to spend all day in bed. These two desires may have equal value in your mind, but if you can't have both, a decision has to be made and with it comes consequences. Sometimes one role has to take priority over another--as much as you may wish to lounge in bed, the fact that you have bills to pay may force your role as employee to take precedence. How will this affect your relationship?

  The fact that we have different roles to fulfill makes for complexity, and each role may have different needs and responsibilities. Here is where we get back to internal conflict, an excellent source of drama.

  A subsequent question to "What do you want?" is "Why do you want it?" Answering this question in terms of creating characters makes for believable motivation. Our roles and goals are often defined by our experiences, and there is often a cause and effect relationship. A person who grew up in a broken family might go to extremes to make sure that the same doesn't happen for his or her children. A child who put his or her hand on a hot burner usually learns to respect fire. Once you understand what your characters want and why they want these things, it will become easier to write them consistently.

• Why are you here?

  Once you have answered the questions of "who are you" and "what do you want," the last question is "Why are you here?" In real life, this is a metaphysical question. When it comes to writing, it is a practical question. Every character in your story must be there for a reason. Sometimes they move the plot forward by taking decisive action or providing important information. Sometimes they are there to give your lead characters someone to whom they can speak (a very important role as it helps avoid interminable monologues or lengthy thought balloons). Sometimes they are there for thematic purpose, to help prove your premise. Whatever the reason, they have to be present to serve an important purpose, or they shouldn't be there at all.