Nicholas Cage seeks to steal the Declaration of Independence. Indiana Jones is searching for the Holy Grail. Luke Skywalker is trying to become a Jedi. Forrest Gump? I think his goals change throughout the story, but in the movie, he is usually trying to find Jenny. Each of these characters are going after something. Each is moving toward a specific goal, but the entire story is not told simply by knowing what goal these characters are after. We need more information. A story with only a goal is an uninteresting story, and I might go so far as to say that it isn’t a story. To make our stories interesting, we need to give our hero both goals and motivation.
“But wait,” you say, “aren’t those two very different words one and the same?”
It is extremely important to know the difference between the goals and motivations of a character because together they can help you write a very powerful story indeed.
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One Last Toast for Ebenezer Fleet:
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