Featured Author Blogs
This page will feature outstanding, unusual, humorous, blatantly commercial or otherwise entertaining posts by our contracted authors.
Following is a blog by the insightful M.Gray, at The Ethos The Logos The Pathos, about the basic needs of characters. Always essential to be aware of when writing a good story! M. Gray's novel is scheduled for release this year.
Professor Steven Reiss identified sixteen basic human desires. I've
found this list extremely helpful in identifying outlying characters'
basic needs. One of the biggest elements I know publishers, editors,
and agents want to see in our work is a main character who
wants something...wants
something BAD. (Excuse the poor grammar, but sometimes I just gotta
write the way I talk, be it hick or valley girl. This is just what you
get.)
Reiss' list:
- Acceptance, the need for approval
- Curiosity, the need to think
- Eating, the need for food
- Family, the need to raise children
- Honor, the need to be loyal to the traditional values of one's clan/ethnic group
- Idealism, the need for social justice
- Independence, the need for individuality
- Order, the need for organized, stable, predictable environments
- Physical Activity, the need for exercise
- Power, the need for influence of will
- Romance, the need for sex
- Saving, the need to collect
- Social Contact, the need for friends (peer relationships)
- Status, the need for social standing/importance
- Tranquility, the need to be safe
- Vengeance, the need to strike back
As
I've mentioned before, I've had some silhouetted characters that I
wasn't entirely sure what they wanted. I knew what four-five characters
wanted, but the others were sketchy. But looking at this list helps SO
much. I'm so excited to go back in my current WIP and make sure these
motivations are demonstrated by these characters' actions. It will
really help them come alive and make writing them more fun.
I
was thinking about one basic need though. What about the need to
create? Where does that fit? Thoughts? Also, vengeance and power is
always a popular choice for antagonists. What need are you exploring in
stories or in the real world?