• Home
  • Blog
  • News
  • Events
  • About the Author
  • About the Book
  • Bookstore
  • Reviews
  • Press/Media
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Blog
  • News
  • Events
  • About the Author
  • About the Book
  • Bookstore
  • Reviews
  • Press/Media
  • Contact
D.R. Ranshaw

D.R. RANSHAW

What Drives Characters?

5/22/2023

0 Comments

 
So… just how would you advertise if you were looking for a protagonist/hero? Possibility of great monetary reward and/or treasure? No, no… you want a hero, not some greedy, grubbing mercenary only interested in money and shiny trinkets. Great adventure accompanied by insane dangers? Definitely no. That belongs in the category of a little too much accuracy in advertising. I mean, who’d take on such a job except the hopelessly naïve of the insanely reckless? Preferably single with no family or emotional ties? Again, no, despite the fact such a requirement is honest and would keep your character out of messy relational entanglements. Besides, you want a person, not a robot. Should be courageous, able to laugh in the face of danger? Who the hell laughs at danger? Not sane people with intelligence, that’s for sure.
 
Where’s all this coming from? you might well ask impatiently, a jaundiced look in your eye. Well, the other day I was rewatching The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the 2012 (Sweet Earendil! Has it really been that long?) Peter Jackson film which kicked off the second round of Tolkien film trilogy mania. And I was struck by the image of Martin Freeman as Bilbo, cavorting over the New Zealand countryside, dementedly shouting, “I’m going on an adventure!”
 
Now, aside from the fact that those words are Jackson’s, not Tolkien’s --- and in an act of supreme self-control, I’ll refrain from a rage-rant today about jackalope upstarts rewriting the Master --- it suddenly struck me that this is a damned silly thing for a protagonist to do, especially a protagonist Tolkien (and even Jackson) have to that point been at pains to emphasize is a solid, quiet individual totally uninterested in the concept of danger, dismemberment and adventure in general. (Yes, yes, I know Jackson could be doing it for several reasons, including highlighting how fun it is to make abrupt and capricious turnarounds in a character’s nature. Or simply because he thought it’s amusing to watch. Shut up and stop interrupting. This is my soap box.)
 
So, then, the weighty question concerning all writers becomes (at least insofar as today’s epistle is concerned): What Drives A Protagonist? I sat down, pen in hand, and within a few seconds noted a number of reasons --- not a Compleat Lyste by any stretch, but it’ll do to begin with, as Humpty Dumpty said to Alice.
 
(I suppose, he admitted grudgingly, come to that, protagonists can be driven by a sense of adventure. Just not very many rational ones… you know, the ones who are okay with three square meals a day, hot baths, warm beds to snuggle up in while listening to the night rain… that kind of thing. The key word in my question is drives, which implies some sort of force creating the need for a protagonist to take action, leave a comfortable life, and embark on suicidal dragon-slaying quests accompanied by a bunch of smelly, uncouth dwarves who despoil their hosts’ dining areas with food fights.)
 
In no particular order, then, here are several possible Factors Which Drive Protagonists:
 
Curiosity. It’s simultaneously one of our race’s greatest gifts and curses. We Need to Know. We Need to Know Why. We’re insatiable in our curiosity (well, except hormonal adolescents in a hot classroom on a Friday afternoon, grumbled the retired secondary school teacher). At times, that curiosity gets us into a helluva lot of trouble, especially when we don’t bother to think of the repercussions of that curiosity. But it doesn’t seem to stop us.
 
Revenge. Ah, one of the oldest motivators of human behaviour, regardless of whether it’s served cold or piping hot. When we’re wronged, we are Not. Going. To. Let. That. Horrible. Other. Person. Get. Away. With. It. End of story. Even if it drags us both down into some spectacularly destructive mutual death-spiral. The problem with this drive is, obviously, it’s a pretty negative headspace to put your protagonist into --- like its close relative, Fear. Protagonists can be driven by fears --- my God, most of us are walking clumps of neuroses and fears which all too often govern our actions --- but it’s not really a very noble motivation for getting a protagonist to do something.
 
Duty. Which is a concept that may have fallen somewhat out of favour in our modern, narcissistic world. “I don’t really want to do this, but feel a moral obligation to start/finish this mission… quest… thing.” It’s a noble sentiment in theory, but I’d suggest that, if that’s the protagonist’s primary motivation, it’s not a great one. Doing something merely from a sense of duty implies your heart isn’t really in it, which doesn’t infuse one with a lot of optimism about possibilities of a favourable outcome.
 
Need to Defend Something. Person, loved one, land, city, way of life… take your pick. Whatever your little heart can imagine. This has been a primary basis for human behaviour pretty much from the get-go. As a species, we’ll do quite a lot to protect something we really like, or something, in Samwise’s words, that’s worth fighting for.
 
Need to Restore Something. Similar, but kind of the flipside of the previous drive. Loved one, land, city, way of life… it’s gone or been taken from the protagonist, who wants to try and bring it back. As before, humanity will go to extraordinary lengths to right a wrong, to bring about healing and restoration… it’s one of our (few) sterling qualities.
 
And finally… Love. We’ll go out on a treacly note. Let cynics roll their eyes and groan theatrically to their hearts’ content, ain’t no denying that love is a major driver of human behaviour --- and, I should note, there are many different types of love, the vast majority of which have absolutely nothing to do with physical attraction and sex. (Something our modern-day society seems to have forgotten in its puerile efforts to equate everything with sex. Chill out, dudes. As Freud is supposed to have said, sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar.) But people will do all kinds of things for love, some honourable, some not.
 
So there you are. Seven-ish possible reasons to get your protagonist out of his/her armchair and leaping across the fields, shouting adventure memes. What are you standing around for? Get moving!

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    D.R. Ranshaw's Blog

    Copyright 2015-2025. All rights reserved.
    ​
    Author of The Annals of Arrinor series.  Lover of great literature, fine wine, and chocolate. Not necessarily in that order.

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly