How to Figure Out What Your Character REALLY Wants

Make your readers care about your story by getting specific about what your protagonist wants—and why.

What does your protagonist want?

I bet you have an answer for that question. I also bet that your answer is a little . . . generic.

See, the thing your protagonist wants is good. They might want to save a victim from a villain, or fall in love, or get a promotion, or solve a mystery. We all agree those are good things to want.

But that doesn’t move us, doesn’t make us care about your protagonist and their goal, unless we know why they want it.

So in this episode, we’re digging in deep to find out not only what your character wants, but why they want it.

You’ll learn:

• The one question I love to ask to figure out what your character really wants
• Why generic wants won’t move your readers
• How to make your story stand out from the crowd by getting specific
• And more!

You might just discover new layers to your character you didn’t even know were there.

Links mentioned in the episode:

• Get the Character Arc Worksheet: alicesudlow.com/characterworksheet
• Ep. 21: How to Identify Your Protagonist's Want and Need (And Why Those Matter to Your Plot)

Transcript

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We know that the thing that your character wants is good. We know that it's a valuable thing and it makes sense that anyone would want it in our minds. We get it. In order for us to care though, you have to show us why your character wants this thing, what it means to them specifically, and what happens if they don't get it. That's how you touch your reader's hearts. Welcome to your next draft. Today, I want to talk about characters specifically, your protagonist and specifically. What your protagonist wants. And I do mean that we're going to talk about what your protagonist wants with specificity. See, there's something that I've been saying to a lot of my clients lately, some feedback that I've been hearing myself giving over and over, and I want to share it with you because it's an important character development concept. And it's cropping up in a lot of the stories that I'm working on right now. So in this episode, I'm going to share with you the advice that I have been giving to clients and the exercise that I want you to do based on this advice. But before we get into that, I want to start off with a question. What's your protagonist once. What do they want? Now you probably have an answer for this question. If you don't have an answer, that's okay. I've got a whole episode on figuring out what it is that your character wants and needs. It's called how to identify your protagonist, wants and need. And you can listen to it by going to Alice said, lo.com/ 21, or you can find the link in the show notes. And I'll just mention this as well. If you would like to do even more character development work, if this is all really exciting to you, you can also download my character arc worksheet. It's not specifically about wants and needs, but it is about how to craft a compelling arc for your character and all of these pieces of character development really go together. So go to Alice Southern. although.com/character worksheet to grab that worksheet. Anyway. Back to character once. You probably do have at least an idea of what it is that your character wants. They could want a lot of things. They could want to get a promotion at work. They could want to save a victim from a villain. They could want to solve a mystery. They could want to meet someone and fall in love. They could want to make money. They could want to escape from a trap. They could want to kill a monster. There are so many things that your character could want, and they're all good things. So think about your character and the thing that your character wants over the course of your story. And hold that in your mind. As we go through this exercise. Now. Here's the advice that I've been giving to my clients. Your character wants X thing. Filling the blank with whatever it is that your character wants. Maybe it's something on that list that I just gave you, or maybe it's something else. Whatever it is. X thing is a good thing. We all agree that X thing is a good thing. Anyone would want X of course, because it's a good thing. No one is going to be like, why does your character want X thing? That's so weird. No. We don't think that it's weird because everybody wants that thing. It is a good thing to want. It makes sense. But the thing is. X thing. Is generic. I am willing to bet that whatever you put in that category of that thing, that your character wants is a really generic general thing that we can all say. Yeah, that idea is really good. But it's not very specific. We hear X thing and we think, yes, that is good. We agree with that on an intellectual level. Yes. That thing is good. But generic things do not make us feel. We don't create a deep, emotional connection with a generic thing. We don't latch on to a generic goal and then root hard for that character to get it. Generic goals have generic stakes and generic stakes don't move us or make us care. In order for me to care about your character's goal in order for me to feel the emotions that they're feeling about it in order for me to root for them to get it and to feel the pain when they don't have it and worry about the consequences. If they fail. I need more than a generic, good thing. I need specificity. I need to know why your character wants this thing. I need to know why your character wants this thing. I need to know why your character wants this thing, this specific thing. We all know that this thing matters in general, but that's not enough. We need to know why this thing matters to your character. We need to know what they will gain. If they get it. We need to know what they will lose if they don't get it. We need to know what it means to them specifically in the context of their life and all of their experience. Why is this thing important to them? Side note. This is why when nonprofit organizations share statistics about the impact that they've had, they pair those statistics with specific stories of individuals that they have helped. The statistics hit us on an intellectual level. They're the generic good thing that applies to many, many people. And the specificity of the personal stories hits us on an emotional level. Sure. That personal story of one person is not exactly the same as every other person, that organization has helped, but we latch onto the specificity of seeing one person's story and really empathizing with the details of their lives. Let me give you an example of how this works. First off. Let's pick a thing for a character to want. I'm literally going to build out the specificity of this character. Want here in this example. I gave you a whole long list of things that a character could want earlier. And here's another list. Money. I promotion falling in love, saving a victim, solving a mystery, killing a monster, making a friend. We could pick any of those things or something else. For this example, here's what I'm going to choose. Let's have a character who wants a closer relationship with a family member. There's someone in their family that they have a lot of distance from and they want a closer relationship with that person. The funny thing is, even as I narrow this down, I can think of multiple clients that I'm working with right now who could be listening to this and thinking, oh my goodness, she's talking about my book. And the thing is no, I'm not. I'm trying really hard to keep this super different from any particular projects that I'm editing. This is not based on any specific writers book. But it probably feels like I'm talking about your book because this is a really good generic thing to want. We all want closer relationships with our family. No one would say, Nope, it is weird and unbelievable to me that someone would want to be closer to their family who would want that. This is a want, that makes a lot of sense, uh, wants so universal that it can resonate with pretty much everyone. And I want to pause here and say that that is a good thing. My point here is not to say this want is something that we all agree is good. That means there are lots of stories written about it. And that means that we have already covered this in the span of literature and storytelling. And there is no room for your story here. so you should just go look for something else, more obscure for your character to once. No. That's not the point at all. The truth is. When you land on a wand that we can all resonate with. That is a great sign that you are on the right track. You have tapped into something universal about human experience. Yes, we all want this thing. You're writing about something true. But you can't stop there. If you stop there, your story stays generic. It stays surface level, and it doesn't connect with your readers on an emotional level and make a lasting impression. Here's the trick. In order to go beyond that in order to make your story unique to you and create the specific catharsis that you want to create for your readers. In order to make your story memorable and stand out as a unique story in a whole field of stories in which characters want X thing. You must add your layers of specificity to your story. So. Let's go back to our example. At character, once a closer relationship with a family member. Okay. Our character. Doesn't just want a closer relationship with family members in general. Our character wants a specific, closer relationship with a specific family member in a specific way for a specific reason. And they will suffer specific consequences if they don't get that relationship. That is the specificity that I challenge you to bring to your story. So let me narrow this example down further. We've got a character who wants a closer relationship with family members. What's their character is a girl. So now we've got a female character who wants a closer relationship with a family member. I'll say the family member is her mom. Okay. We've got a female character who wants a closer relationship with her mom. That is two layers of added specificity. And already I have cut out a handful of people who were thinking, oh my goodness, my story is exactly like that. But I have also kept in quite a few people who have a story. That's exactly like that. I can think of both clients of mine and published books that I love that have female protagonists who want closer relationships with their moms. So, this is not yet enough specificity. A girl who wants a closer relationship with her mom, not enough specificity. Let's add some more. I'm going to start asking why. Here's how it works. Why does our character not have a close relationship with her mom? Our character doesn't have a close relationship with her mom. Because a few years ago, her aunt died, her mom's sister and her mom has been wracked with grief ever since. Now we've got another layer of specificity. We've got a specific reason why she doesn't have the thing that she wants. Great. Let's go deeper. She doesn't have a close relationship with her mom because her aunt died and her mom has been wracked with grief. That means that she used to have a close relationship with her mom, but she doesn't anymore. So now we've cut out all of the stories where she never had a close relationship with her mom. We've got a character who used to have a close relationship. And now that relationship is distant. So. Let's think about that close relationship she used to have. Why does she love that close relationship with her mom that she used to have? Sure when people have close relationships with their moms, we all think that's great. Everyone wants that. But what does our character love about this? What does this relationship mean to her? Not just why is it good to have a close relationship with your mom, but why is this character so much enjoying? So valuing this relationship that she has with her mom? Well, When our character was a little girl, she would come home from school every day. And her mom would have a slice of homemade banana bread cut on the plate and waiting for her. She would sit down with her at the kitchen table and she'd asked her about her day at school, the same four questions every time, but they would cut to the heart of the day and they would help our character open up and share what she was really feeling. And no matter what she shared her mom understood her and she listened closely and she gave her wise advice about how to navigate all of the problems she was facing. And these times of eating banana bread together after school were some of our characters, favorite memories with her mom. And now. She doesn't have moments like that. Her mom doesn't really talk to her. She hasn't baked banana bread or asked her those four questions in years, they don't connect the way that they used to. And our character doesn't feel like she can share her problems with her mom, the way that she used to. So she's got this memory of this thing that she loves to do, and she doesn't get to do it anymore. Okay. That's great. That is a layer of specificity that is starting to differentiate us from some other stories. But there's more we can dig into here. Let's create another layer of specificity by asking why again. Why were those days of eating banana bread with her mom? So important. We know they were good. We know she enjoyed them. Why. Well, when she was eating banana bread with her mom. She felt so seen and loved and supported her mom got her the way that no one else did. And she gave her such good advice. There were other people in her life who were happy to tell her what they thought that she should do, but no one listened to her like her mom did. And no one understood her as well as her mom understood her. And no one gave her such tailored advice, full of empathy and love as her mom did. She trusted her mom, like no one else. She leaned on her mom when she was overwhelmed or confused or struggling. And she relied on her mom's advice all the way through her childhood. She felt so safe with her mom. And now she doesn't feel any of that. She feels on her own. She feels a drift. She does not feel like she has a safe, secure relationship like that, where she can share what's going on and where someone will give her advice that really fits her. She feels like she's got to solve all her problems herself, and she's afraid that she's not as wise as her mom. And so she's not going to do the right thing all the time. And she's just feeling so sad and lonely and a drift because she doesn't have this close, loving connection. Now we've got some specificity. Now we understand why she wants her mom. It's not that her mom was a mom who did mom things. Her mom was a mom who baked banana bread. Who asked her questions about her life, who understood her the way that no one else did and who gave her good advice? Those things are the things that she wants from her mom, that she is not getting any more. When she wants her mom, she doesn't just want X good thing. She wants her mother who feels specific needs in her life, who bakes her banana bread, who listens to her and who gets her and guides her through life. Other characters with other moms are different from this character and her mom. Their moms fill different roles in their lives. They meet different needs. They're important in different ways. Their absence would hurt in different ways and have different consequences. This is why this character specifically wants her mom. And when we see this character in this story, wanting her mom, we will see that present in ways that are specific to her. One of the ways that her mom is important to her is that she's always been a guide to her. Uh, Wiseman to our, when our character runs into a problem. So now that her mom isn't filling that role anymore. Our character feels scared and overwhelmed when she has to face big decisions in her life. She's never trusted anyone's advice, the way that she trusted her mom's advice. So even when she can ask other people, she always has this nagging sense that their advice doesn't quite fit. So she has to rely on herself now without the guidance that she craves. And it's so scary. Another thing is when she goes to a coffee shop and she sees banana bread in the pastry case, sometimes it makes her want to cry. She remembers her mom making her banana bread And she hasn't gotten to eat her mom's banana bread in years. And so she sees the symbol of the mother's love that she used to have, and she wants it back so desperately it hurts. These are layers of specificity that differentiate this story about a mom and her daughter from every other mother daughter relationship story out there. Now it's completely different from every client's book that I'm working on. You're welcome. All my clients. I hope that I have a laser fears. Now it's completely different from all the published books that I have read that include a person who wants a closer connection with some family members. This is its own story with its own layers of specificity. And this story now has the power to create catharsis for your readers. Uh, telling us that a character wants a closer relationship with some family members Is not something that pulls at our heartstrings. But this young girl wants to sit with her mom and eat banana bread again, while her mom listens to all her problems and gives her incredibly wise and caring advice about how to solve them. That is something that tugs at our heartstrings. We know that the thing that your character wants is good. We know that it's a valuable thing and it makes sense that anyone would want it in our minds. We get it. In order for us to care though, you have to show us why your character wants this thing, what it means to them specifically, and what happens if they don't get it. That's how you touch your reader's hearts. Now, this is not the end of the line for our protagonist and her mom. We could keep on adding more and more layers of specificity. I can ask why a whole lot more. Why does our character feel like her mom gets her in a way that no one else does. Is she very similar to her mom or is her mom very good at reading people? Suppose her mom is very good at reading people. Why does it feel like a loss to not have her mom around reading her? Does she feel like other people don't see her clearly? Does she feel like she picked up her mom's skill of reading people. We could keep going, asking why and why again and why. Again. At each new layer. There's another why to explore more opportunity for even more specificity. But I'll stop here because I think you see where this is going and I'll give you your assignment. So here's your task now? Take your characters goal, that thing that you know, that your character wants. And make it more specific. And the way I want you to do that is by asking why. And then asking why again and then asking why again, Your character wants X thing. Great. That is a good thing to want. Why do they want X? Okay. And they want X because of Y cool. Why did they want Y. Okay. They want Y because of Z. Cool. Why. Just keep digging and digging and digging on why your character wants that thing until you get down to something really deep and fundamental. A lot of times that deep thing turns out to be. Either a belief that they picked up in childhood about the way the world works or an experience that they had at some point in their life that shaped them as a person and the way they see the world. Sometimes it's a specific event that changed the way they experienced the world, or really shaped them as a person. And sometimes it's more so the general way of things, the way that their life was rather than one life altering event. That general way of things might then be represented by specific events. For example, our protagonists didn't have one major events that defined her best times with her mom, but instead she had an ongoing caring, supportive, and loving relationship with her mom. And that was represented by a moment at the kitchen table, eating banana bread. You don't always have to go back to childhood, but a lot of times things do go back to childhood. The key though, is to dig down until you figure out why it is that your character wants the thing that they want. Don't stop until you've gotten three or four or five layers deep, and you get down to some real specificity where you understand what's really underneath that thing that they want. Wanting a good thing is a great start, But you will meet your readers on an intellectual level only. Unless you put on the page with great specificity. Y your character wants that good thing specific to them. And why it's important to them that they get it. I hope this helps you discover some new layers to your character that maybe you didn't even know yet. I think you'll find some beautiful, powerful things. When you keep asking why. And I encourage you to lean in hard on that specificity As you write about your character and their pursuit of that goal. Paradoxically it is in creating that specificity that you will write stories that resonate with us all because you're tapping into universal human experiences and showing us truths about our world in ways that are new and completely unique to you. Happy editing.