One way to develop your character: Your character has an essence of his/her self. The deep, quite stable, vulnerable, greatly unknown core. It is not the storeroom of emotions and feelings, values, motivations... It is the birthplace of them. You character have many identities. Career identities, friendship identities, family identities, identities connected to believes, values, feelings, motivations, defences (!), level of education, creativity, intelligence, sexuality.... Identities are a bit like clothing. We change them during a day. Them protect us. We express our "tribal”, social and political stance with them. Identities are not what we are - deep down. Identities are what we want to express publicly. Different identities confront. Older with new ones. More private with more public... Identities confront with wants, needs and cravings. And the biggest confrontation: identities confront with the essence. Huge public - normative, cultural, social... - pressures steer the development of identities. Huge inner pressures are working in the essence. Social pressure = you can fit in by giving away your deepest essence or absorbing what is offered. Inner pressure = don't lose your core, don't fool yourself to believe that identities can substitute the real thing. Character arch is the storyline of this series of conflicts. Essence vs. identities. Identities vs. other identities. It is the stage of all inner conflicts. Many of them are internalised outer conflicts. Theme is almost always deeply connected to this character arch. Plot is where these conflicts manifest themselves. If you don't show the essence you get paint by numbers cardboard. If you don't show identities you get naval but no person around it. If you show both essence and identities, you show a person in the society. Motivation? When motivation rises from this internalised and inner conflict, it is complex, believable, deep, craving, multidimensiona and personal. Your reader/viewer/listener can emphasise his/herself to that set of motivations. Yes... It is not a motivation but complete set of motivations. If you are unsure about your characters, you can test them. Don't think details and subject but deeper levels of essence and identities. Hauge is a good start.
