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Character Growth: Wants vs Needs
- Jennifer Peaslee
- Apr 1
- 3 min read
While my editor goes over my Sorority Zombies in Space! manuscript, I wanted to get to work on a new WIP (work in progress). I wrote the first six chapters in a flash, getting a little past the inciting incident, and then hit a wall.
Why the wall?
I have an outline plotted. I have done my research. I have extensive notes on my setting. I know the thematic lesson.
What I don't have? Solid characterization.
Specifically, I knew what my protagonist wants, but not what she needs.
What Are You Talking About?
Okay, so, every character in your story should have a want (external goal) and a need (internal goal).
It's important to have both, otherwise you have half a character.
In Speak, Melinda wants to stay quiet and forget her assault ever happened, but she needs to speak up.
True masters of drama will craft internal and external goals that directly oppose each other.
In Stephen King's 11/22/63, Jake Epping wants to travel in time to stop the Kennedy assassination. He needs to stop fucking around with time. He cannot achieve both goals; he must choose.
Ross Hartmann's Plot and Structure says that the internal and external goals "must be mutually exclusive so that if one is attained, the other can't be." However, I disagree. Take The Incredibles.
In The Incredibles, Mr. Incredible wants to be a superhero again. He needs to appreciate his family and what he has. In the end, he fights as a superhero with his family. (Spoilers)
Another thing: your character can and will have multiple wants throughout the novel.
In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry wants to find a place to fit in. Then he wants to figure out what Snape is up to. Then he wants to protect the stone from Voldemort. At one point, he wants to avoid taking action at all.
Hokay, So
My WIP has two protagonists: Amanda, a sex worker who is being evicted, and her sister Abigail, who has bipolar disorder.
Amanda wants to 1) not be evicted and 2) escape the murder mansion she gets trapped in.
Here's my problem: I have no idea what she needs.
So, that's where I am right now: trying to pinpoint my main character's internal goal. There are a few options:
Make her relationship with Abigail more complicated. Right now, I have that Amanda and Abs have a great relationship. There's nothing wrong with characters having a sincere sisterly bond, but I could change it so that there's some friction between them, and what they both need is to realize they need each other.
Make her relationship with Abigail more codependent. Amanda's need will be realizing that she needs to give Abigail room to try and fail on her own. Abigail, on the other hand, will go on a journey that shows her she doesn't need to depend on her sister as much as she thinks.
Keep the relationship as-is (functional, healthy) and throw their parents into the mix as minor antagonists. Amanda and Abigail will need to recognize that they are better off without them in their lives at this moment.
Three possibilities of internal goals. I'll have to think on it some more before I decide what direction I want to go in.
But if you're ever stuck in the writing process, be sure to ask—what is making me stuck?
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