Mary Rosenblum, LR Web Editor, writes both fiction and nonfiction. www.maryrosenblum.com

 

 

Explaining the Unexpected: Hidden Motivators

By Mary Rosenblum

 

            While we need to give our readers a host of small, intimate details about our characters that will allow our readers to find those empathic connections that make the character a friend rather than a stranger, we also need to create a real character.  Every reader is an expert on human behavior.   We have all been noticing people and the way they behave from the moment we were born.  Now that doesn’t mean that your reader is your equal at creating characters.  Not at all.   But readers know when someone is behaving unrealistically.   If your best friend is a couch potato, loves the remote control, and really doesn’t go out and do hard physical activity without a lot of arm twisting, what will you think when that person wakes you at 5 AM to propose a 15 mile snow shoeing trip?  Will you wonder just what chemicals this person has imbibed or will you simply call 911? 

 

            If your Main Character, who is a bookish, rather introverted person, very shy, with poor people skills, suddenly leaps onto a barrel and gets an entire street filled with assorted strangers to rush headlong at the evil soldiers who have overthrown the government and taken the Prime Minister hostage …well, huh? This is the main character who a few pages back was scared to complain to the hotel desk that his sheets were dirty?  And he’s galvanizing the populace?  Risking death?  Excuse me? 

 

            Right about here, you lose your readers.  Even if they finish the story, their comments will run to It was okay, but I couldn’t really get into it.    This will not send them flocking to the bookstore to purchase your next book or short story!

 

“Just Because” Doesn’t Work!

 

            But he really is like that, the author wails.  Trust me, I know him.   Well, that’s nice, but he’s not the character you introduced to us.  And we only know what we see, hear, touch, taste, or smell in a story.  So if we only see a wimp who would duck and run if you glared at him, then don’t tell us that he’ll lead the suicide charge to overthrow the evil General.  We won’t believe you.   Unless you show us the part of him that drives him to do that.

 

            Aha.  So there you have it.  It is true that we are not always what we seem on the surface.  You merely need to create the hidden part of our main character that will come to the surface as he leaps onto that barrel!  And how do you do that?  Simple.  You create the character with all the past history, the depth, secret loves and fears and abilities that your character might not even be consciously aware of.  You need to make them visible to us, the readers, and then we’ll believe our  wimp when he leaps onto that barrel.  We now know about his past, and how his father died, and how he blames himself because he stood back and did nothing because he was only ten and terrified.  And that evil General gave the orders that brought the soldiers to the village to kill Dad, and now, he can assuage that guilt that has eaten him for the past ten years by leading the charge to overthrow that very same General who killed his father.  He’s terrified, he’s still the wimp we’ve been reading about, but we guessed that he might have a buried well of rage just waiting to be released.  Now that leap onto the barrel makes perfect sense.

 

            That guilt is the hidden motivator that drives the character change we see in the story.  The character is like an iceberg.  We only see the tip protruding into the story.  But remember that 4/5 of an iceberg is hidden beneath the surface of the ocean.  It is that huge iceberg mass of back story that powers the character’s brief appearance in our story.  That is where the hidden motivators come from – that huge hidden mass of iceberg character.  That is the source of the guilt that propels our hero.

 

            Once we understand that powerful well of guilt and subsequent rage that drives him, we understand his leap onto that barrel and we cheer him on.  We now understand where that leap comes from – the hidden motivator.  It’s not enough to say ‘trust me’.  You need to ‘show us’ by creating a past that reveals the hidden motivator driving the character to behave the way he or she does.

 

            What ‘motivators’ drive characters?  Many!  Begin with guilt.  That’s a common one.  How about love, hate, need for approval, fear of rejection, fear of poverty, loyalty, greed, and vengeance to name a few.  Ask yourself …what does my character need to fix?   When you answer that question, you’ll find your ‘hidden motivator’.  Then it’s merely up to you to reveal that hidden motivator to the reader, even if you character is unaware of it. 

 

            How do you do that, especially if your character isn’t aware of those suppressed feelings?  You can reveal them in any of several ways.  Perhaps a chance comment from someone who knew our hero as a child elicits an unexpected response from him.  Aha, readers think.  There’s something there.  And later on, our young wimp might stammer out a few words that allude to the death of his father as he talks to the young serving girl at the Inn. We readers will begin to add up these clues and a misty backstory will begin to emerge.  This general had something to do with his family’s death or suffering and he has buried some very powerful feelings.   Later, as the critical scene begins, we see that the character is obviously under extreme stress.  He is tense, unconsciously opening and closing his fists, and when someone bumps him, he spins to face them, no longer the shy wallflower he was earlier.  We realize he is about to explode.

 

            Now, when he leaps onto that barrel and incites the crowd to revolt, we have enough pieces of the puzzle in hand to put it all together Aha!  He saw his family die and has blamed himself for not avenging them.  But now he’s going to do it, and he doesn’t care if he dies.

 

Working Backward

 

            You don’t need to have all this planned out before you type the first sentence.  When you arrive at that critical scene and wonder to yourself, now why would he do this?  just make sure that your answer is obvious to the reader, too.  You can go back through your earlier scenes and plant those clues – a look here, a flinch there, a brief conversation that alludes to past events.   The reader does not have to know every detail of that earlier history, just enough so that we can fill in the blanks of motivation when that character leaps into seemingly uncharacteristic behavior.  Never be afraid to backtrack, planting needed clues as you do.  Often that is the best way to make sure that you include just the right number of clues. 

 

            Give your finished draft to a reader and after they have read it, ask directly:  Did you understand why my character behaved this way in this scene? If your readers confess to  puzzlement, plant clearer clues.  If they are able to guess something that approximates the truth you have envisioned, go with it.  A close guess is all you need – just enough so that the character’s behavior makes sense. 

 

            Remember…we are all experts on human behavior.  So it pays to get it right.