Word of the Week: Motive

Motive
1. something that causes a person to act in a certain way, do a certain thing, etc.; incentive.
2. the goal or object of a person's actions: Her motive was revenge.
3. (in art, literature, and music) a motif.

Simply put, motive is drive. A human can't exist without a drive for something, and though that something may lie underneath a thousand leagues of water, it is still very present in everything that we do. Every action is driven, and we never act in a way that we don't see best. These particulars are incredibly important to an author, most so because as writers we attempt to create beings most similar to ourselves as possible. If we even slightly diverge in this, all things become unhinged; once a character loses credibility of humanity, or rather the attribute of identification and projection (As humanity oft only refers to humans.), there is no mitigating the damage to the story's immersion of the reader.

The "why" of this is that one of the main goals of an author, although we may not even know it, is to craft a world for our reader to delve themselves in to. It is the human condition to become a part of this world and to draw parallels to their own world (Identification), and more, to apply themselves to a character in that world as if they, themselves, were that person (Projection). It is not a goal to cleanly aim for this, as its near impossible to didactically target the plethora of demographics, but to give realistic characters without unbelievable flaws, or worse, no flaws at all... but these are blurred lines. Both of the above categories have a name, nearly one in the same, in fact, that was coined over characters that became too flawless. The term is Mary Sue; a Mary Sue is a character that is flawless, can do no wrong, and incites only jealousy and self-esteem related conflict. The general theme is: More powerful, more beautiful, more agile and cunning, more intelligent and better than the best at everything they do (Also note that Mary Sue was derived from Fan Fiction, wherein an author would interject a new character, sometimes themselves, into situations with other pre-made, Fiction, characters. Writing one's self into a story is usually considered a Mary Sue character.). This may seem over-the-top, but the concept is that of a scale. It is only once a character reaches a certain tipping point that these terms apply, and even then, it is a hard call to make. The anti-thesis to the Mary Sue is just that, the Anti-Sue, or Anti-Mary Sue; a character that does everything wrong, everyone hates them, nothing is correct, evolution seriously failed and-if-that-thing-ever-breeds,-we're-all-fucked.

Some Anti-Mary's end up becoming under-dogs of sorts, but they're still just as powerfully cliche that it hurts. The main error in Mary Sue's is that they lack true motives. The motive lies in the author, the one who's writing the character, it is their motive, not the characters, and though we as authors understand our motives, it is something that leaves the reader wondering. Characters must eat, breath, sleep, and construct their own story - personally, to me, they are not finished until they themselves write their own story, I'm just the guy with the keyboard.

What gives us our meaning in life? What gives you your meaning? Really think down deep, claw your way down if you have to, and think hard. When you find your meaning, maybe it will give you a real glimpse of what it is to be unique, and how you can generate that uniquely. All characters are a part of you in one form or another, they cannot be unique of you, but unique amongst themselves is very possible. Family, Friends, Money, Love, Hate, Anger, Martyrdom, Warmth, Blackness, every reason you can think of to wake up in the morning, all its positives and negatives, that is Motive. What is your character's reason to wake up in the morning? Don't stray from that. Don't patronize your reader with it either though.

With that in mind, it is hard to say what will and will not be received positively. Some characters are considered annoying or spoiled by some, but adorable by the next. It is when the majority can easily tag the idea, stereotype or character type that things tend to become uninteresting, which breaks the reader from the world you've made with a discomforting abruptness.

Cheers,
Cathan