Day 63: Motivation pt. 2

Yesterday I talked about how I like to divide character motivation into two parts, an emotion the character has to deal with, and a trait that determines how they deal with it. I went over the most basic example of motivation, that being the will to live. I want to cover a couple of more complex motivations and see if they will still fit into this emotion/trait breakdown or if there are motivations too complex to use this thought process on.

So I find myself asking, what's the second simplest motivation? Maslow's hierarchy of needs was helpful yesterday so I'm going to break it out again. After physiological needs like food and water, safety and security is up next, and that level includes necessities such as shelter, employment, property, etc. Someone might be able survive without these things on pure determination, but it's going to be rough. Furthermore I think to hold down a job, maintain a house, and own property, you need more than just the will to live. On top of determination, a character trying to attain these things for the first time might need the necessary skills to hold down a down a job, they would probably need some sense of responsibility to others, and they would have to have the social ability to navigate these circumstances. I'm going to label this kind of motivation (to get a job, a house, etc.) the will to a better life.

Most people have a will to a better life to some extent. There is some level of material living standard that they expect and will work hard to achieve, usually by utilizing the character traits that make them useful to others. The primary motivating emotion might be fear in some circumstances, but I think it gets more interesting when the emotion at play here is ambition or desire. Desire for a better life is easier to for a reader to get behind than the fear of living without safety, although that is always the threat that makes for big stakes. The character themselves should enjoy the benefits of material gain enough to find motivation to get these things without needing to constantly remind themselves that they will live without shelter and potentially food if they don't strive for a better life. This is what separates this level of motivation from the will to live.

Underdog stories feature the will to a better life heavily, but I think this is usually only the base for more complex motivators. Rocky for example, uses his strength, boxing ability, and determination to push hard for a better life, but the movie would be pretty boring if all we got to see was his training and then the boxing match. He also falls in love along the way, and has complex social relationships to maintain, so clearly there are more levels to motivation than survival and seeking a better life. I'm going to continue with this train of thought in the next post.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley