Blog # 88; More thoughts on Writing Fiction; more Aristotle (Character and Motive)

Since ancient Athens, and the book Poetics by the philosopher Aristotle, creative writers have had

access to a number of implements to create interesting, compelling characters. This series of blogs is

designed to give the awareness and skill to create great stories, and we start this series with character

development. The key is having and developing an overpowering motivation for the character,

something he or she vitally wants or wants to avoid. This drives the character’s action, and creates

conflict, or tension, between characters in a story. Handled correctly, such a dynamic drives the plot

forward and propels the narrative, capturing and holding the attention of the audience.

What propels a story is tension, or conflict, where typically characters are in adversarial situations and

compete to gain what they want and avoid what they do not want. The main character is usually, but

not always, a sympathetic character that is likable to the reader on some level. He or she may also be an

anti-hero of sorts, someone who is the main focus of the story but who does things in an unconventional

and individualistic way. The anti-hero is the gunslinger of the old West, the maverick fighter jock, the

arrogant but highly successful surgeon. They do things differently, they buck the system, and by pushing

the edges of the limits, and by doing so develop as unique characters.