Character motivation: SURVIVING THE DEATH OF A LOVED ONE

SURVIVING THE DEATH OF A LOVED ONE

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To understand why your character is driven toward a certain goal, get to know their positive and negative traits, as well as any significant emotional wounds that might be motivating them. Then you can explore the various kinds of conflict that could block them as they move toward their goal.

There are five basic human needs that, when missing from a character's life, could motivate them to pursue this goal. The following needs are all possibilities, but only one of them should be the primary driver for any given character. For more information on the relationship between human needs and outer motivations, please see this Character Motivation tutorial.

Esteem and Recognition: Young people are changed by wounding events just as adults are. If those changes are big enough to have impacted the character's reputation or sense of self-worth, they may seek to deal with the loss properly, thereby regaining their lost esteem.
Love and Belonging: If a character's relationships have diminished or disappeared (possibly due to their fear of loving again) the void may drive them to rectify the problem by pursuing this goal.
Safety and Security: If the person who died was a caregiver or parent, the child's new circumstances may threaten their safety. In this situation, they will need to literally survive what happened, learning to cope with not only the death itself but the resulting aftermath.

SURVIVING THE DEATH OF A LOVED ONE

HELPFUL TIP:

FORMS THIS MIGHT TAKE:

HUMAN NEED DRIVING THE GOAL (INNER MOTIVATION):

HOW THE CHARACTER MAY PREPARE FOR THIS GOAL:

POSSIBLE SACRIFICES OR COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS GOAL:

ROADBLOCKS WHICH COULD PREVENT THIS GOAL FROM BEING ACHIEVED:

TALENTS & SKILLS THAT WILL HELP THE CHARACTER ACHIEVE THIS GOAL:

WHAT'S AT STAKE IF THIS GOAL ISN'T MET?