1. Vivianthegumptious

    Vivianthegumptious New Member

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    Help Figuring out Motivation

    Discussion in 'Character Development' started by Vivianthegumptious, Dec 5, 2022.

    *Read this if you want a short version of what I write below:*

    In short: I need a motivation for my female character to want to escape her current horrible life. She will get transported to a fantasy world, where she still feels the need to go home because of something like having a little sister who needs her. When she finally goes back to the real world, she resolves her horrible life due to skills that she developed in the fantasy world.

    What is the motivation and resolution for her? What is something realistic that makes her life so horrible she wants to escape it?


    Lengthy version:

    Hi everyone,

    I am writing a fantasy novel about a very personal journey where the main character goes from their ordinary boring life in the real world to a fantasy world where anything is possible for now. In the fictional world, she finds out she needs to finish a quest to go home. All throughout the journey, she feels the need to go home due to something that she needs to do at home, such as taking care of her little sister. I have a plot and setting pretty much set up, but have not started writing yet. The reason being, I don't have a motivation or driving force for my character.

    I haven't decided on a backstory, only that I want it to be something family related. I don't know where the journey is going, because I know I need to shape it around character development, which is currently impossible due to a lack of character motivation and backstory.

    Here's info I have decided about the main character:
    • Female
    • In last 2 years of high school
    • Has a little sister that she loves
    • Want to escape her current crappy life, and magically gets transported into another world
    Here's info I'm debating on for motivation:
    • Parents are socialites and attend parties most nights, leading to main character having to take care of her little sister, making her hate her parents and life, wanting to escape life. Resolution: ?
    • Parents are gone (death?), leaving her and sister with grandmother, who dies after a few years, leaving them two alone. She doesn't want to be split up if they go into the foster system, so they've been pretending their grandma is still alive, with her working multiple jobs to keep them alive. Resolution: Finally accepting help from the foster care system?
    • Parents are abusive, having no relatives to go to, they stay on constant thin ice in their parents' house because she's not brave enough to seek help. Resolution: She comes back and finds the courage to report her parents to authorities and get them out of this abusive family?
    If you've read everything, I'm so grateful for your time! I'm open to any ideas about character development, or any pointers on fixing plot holes for the ideas above.

    Thanks for your help!
    Vivian
     
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  2. ps102

    ps102 PureSnows102 Contributor Contest Winner 2023

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    I wondered how much you've plotted on each world... and this tells me is that you haven't really done any building around the real world, as you haven't even decided what circumstances surround your MC.

    You're going about this backwards. It seems that you are building the fantasy world first before the real world, and I say so because you mentioned that you "have a plot pretty much set-up". You can't have a plot pretty much set-up and not know these things, so I'm assuming that you've mostly plotted out what happens in the fantasy world.

    Your MC's root life lies in the real world, not in the fantasy world. She's there because of the real world, so when you've got nothing planned out for it, you get naturally stuck like this.

    You've got to make a start from there, and build on your MC's old life. Firstly... decide on what your MC hates. Then... decide on what your MC loves. That specific thing that she hates is what drives her out, and that specific thing that she loves is what gets her back. This might seem obvious, but it's also important to understand you can't define those things without first building the real world.

    If I were you, I'd do something like this:

    The MC lives with her single Father/Mother and little sister. She's struggling to decide on what to do with her life after high school, and she's constantly pressured about it. The pressure continues so much to the point where something magical happens and she ends up in the fantasy world. There, she's happy, as it draws on her love for video games which she always wanted to build her life around... but never had a way to (maybe link this back to the pressure?). Now, however, her life is a video game! And she thinks that this will finally make her happy.

    But the more she spends time indulged in fantasy, the more she starts to feel guilt creeping behind her back. She spends her days fighting monsters and feeling less and less happy as dread starts to build up inside her. She starts to have nightmares about her sister, her old life, her friends at school, her teachers, things that were said to her in the past... and realizes that the things said about her were right. She realizes that all this time, she was running away from having to face the real world. She realizes that she's made her family suffer by literally vanishing. She begins to see her sister in her dreams, wishing for her return... and decides to grant this wish.

    From there, her goal becomes to return to the real world, and finally face her old life. She sets out to find a way to the real world and finds that defeating the final boss will grant her any wish... including an escape. But the quest is difficult, stressful and seemingly impossible. She starts to want to give up, thinking that the road map is just too long or too hard or requires too many sacrifices. And she does almost give up... until she realizes that she's repeating her mistakes from the real world. She's running away again. That scares her the MC, she fears for what will become of her if she keeps running away, and thinks back to her little sister. She builds up the courage to keep going, and little by little, she overcomes the flaws that prevented her from tackling the hard challenges... and wins... getting back to the real world. From thereon, her developed version is more capable of tackling challenges, which dramatically improves her real life. Isn't this what you want, basically?

    These are nothing but a bunch of plot points and illustrates a way in which the events would typically flow in a story structure, such as the three-act structure. My main goal was showing you how I built on the real world a little and used several elements out of it to drive the MC in the fantasy world. You, of course, don't have to do things this way.

    In my barebones plot, I tried to have more than one dimension by giving a side of argument to the family instead of completely demonizing them by making them abusive or neglecting. They have a say because they aren't abusive, but you don't have to do it this way, you can demonize the parents if you want. Maybe when the MC escapes into the fantasy world, things go haywire with the sister, and she wants to go back and stop that. Depending on how exactly things go haywire with the sister, it might even create some tension.

    All and all, fantasy worlds are often a form of escapism for many (literally fantasy!) so that's why I utilize it as such. It's appropriate to throw an MC who always runs away into a world of fantasy. It's not random, and there's a purpose, it adds dimension to the story... especially when the parents have a point. Perhaps not a well-made one, but a point.
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2022
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  3. Louanne Learning

    Louanne Learning Happy Wonderer Contributor Contest Winner 2023 Contest Winner 2022

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    In the real world, she feels powerless in her life. She is in some situation she can't control. She lacks belief in herself. In the fantasy world, she meets challenges and this changes her attitudes and perspectives. You mentioned she gains skills, but what must change in her belief in herself. She must come to believe in her own power. It's going from the dark to the light.
     
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  4. ps102

    ps102 PureSnows102 Contributor Contest Winner 2023

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    Exactly! The fantasy world should be used to flip her perspectives on the real world, which will act as a device to drive character development.

    The lack of self-esteem is a good character flaw, it can really reinforce the runaway idea. I really think that OP should take this approach however she chooses to portray the MC's family, it contemplates the fantasy escape concept as a whole.
     
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  5. TheOtherPromise

    TheOtherPromise Senior Member

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    What kind of message/theme do you want the story to have, because that could drastically alter what works best.

    If for instance it's about selfishness vs duty, you could have it be something where the MC wants to just live in the fantasy world and have fun, but knows that her family needs her and she has to return for their sake. It could be something like she lives with her younger sister and their single mother, who has recently lost her job for some reason. Without an income the mother pressures the MC into finding a job, but she doesn't want to, and instead is whisked away to the fantasy world. Eventually she learns to put aside her own wants for what her family needs.

    On the flip side it could be about individuality vs conformity. The MC could have a strict, demanding family that expects her to be a certain way. She tries to pleas them but she doesn't fit that mold, and attempting to do so causes her stress. The fantasy world allows her the opportunity to be fully herself for the first time, and makes her realize how stifling her home life is. When she returns she does so with the confidence to be true to herself regardless of whether her family accepts her for it.

    If you know what type of story you're working towards it can help guide you to what would work best for that theme. But without knowing what theme you want to explore, there isn't much we can do to help you. Any advice would come across more as what we would do with that premise and not what you could/should do.
     
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  6. hmnut

    hmnut Member

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    If I were to super over simplify how to world build I would say you have two main choices, decided on who the character is and build the world that best fits their story, or build the world and then decided what character would best fit into that story.

    If I am reading this correctly, we are trying to create problems in the real world for the MC that are solved by the lessons learned in the fantasy world... okay... so what does the MC learn in the fantasy world, confidence, the value of friendship, how to cook rice? Once we know what she learns in the fantasy world we can see how that can be applied to the real world setting.

    That's the simple answer.

    The complicated part is the insistence on the fact that this is a "very personal journey" suggest this is a pretty heavy character driven story, in which case it seems like developing the CHARACTER before the world is essential. For me it is hard to decide on a setting and plot BEFORE the character if I know the story is going to be a character heavy story.

    just my two cents
     
  7. w. bogart

    w. bogart Contributor Contributor Blogerator

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    I saw nothing about genre, in your description. Picking a genre will help you narrow down the possibilities. If we are talking action, that will be very different than a love story or a mystery.

    I ha e found I am more plotter than pantser. I have found the story grid, and save the cat to be a big help for me. They might help clarify things in your mind.
     
  8. ps102

    ps102 PureSnows102 Contributor Contest Winner 2023

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    The genre is fantasy, and OP just so happens to tap into a fantasy sub-genre popularized in Japan as "Isekai", where it follows the trope of the MC getting teleported into a fantasy world.

    Though... Japanese Isekai tends to be for a very specific audience, and it also tends to be plain... horrible. Not all of it, but most of it, since there's so damn much.

    Fantasy in Japan is generally really popular from books to films to video games. The dark truth behind that is the strict social hierarchy, which makes people yearn for escape.

    OP is probably not writing a Japanese Isekai, strictly speaking. Those are usually written with specific ways, tropes, and cliches.
     
  9. w. bogart

    w. bogart Contributor Contributor Blogerator

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    I am not familiar with the Japanese cultural genres. I saw the fantasy reference, but wasn't sure if it was a subgenre the a larger genre.
     
  10. TheOtherPromise

    TheOtherPromise Senior Member

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    It's probably safer to say the sub-genre is portal fantasy (think The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe). That is what I've seen the genre referred to as, and removes it from the connection to anime and manga.
     
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  11. ps102

    ps102 PureSnows102 Contributor Contest Winner 2023

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    Ah, thanks. Portal fantasy better describes it, since Isekai is really specific, probably exclusive to Japan.

    Though believe it or not, Isekai anime is usually adapted from novels, not just manga. Light novels to be specific. The market is full of them right now.
     

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