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There are four aspects of a powerful character:
- Want
- Need
- Lie
- Ghost
Robert McKee said in “Story” – and I quote – “Character is choices made under pressure.” He adds that everything else, from their physical attributes to their personality, is characterization. A character is merely determined by choices they make under pressure.
You need conflict to apply this stress, and then have your characters make the choices – and hopefully, be destroyed by them.
How do you determine what choices your characters will make under pressure that will set them apart as memorable and fascinating?
There are four aspects that help you get to know what kind of people your characters really are. Let’s break them down one by one.
- Want : This is the most underrated. It is also the most easily misunderstood. Your character needs a concrete goal, a physical thing that it gains.
- A “Don’t-Want” is never a powerful want. It’s easy to avoid something, but can be near-impossible to gain something. And, if done right, it should be.
- This is not something like “happiness” or “freedom”. It can be “I want my childhood pancakes in my once-bombed town as it will make me happy.” or “I want to leave the brothel I work in and travel to the social worker’s house to be free.” These are possible concrete wants. These are physical things that someone can want, in order to be happy or free. See the difference?
- Want drives the story
- Want gives your character agency. They are actively pursuing a goal. They always have agency.
- Want is what your story is about.
2. Need : This is as important as the want. Neither is more important, as you need both to have a story. There are no exceptions.
- Need is intangible, abstract, ephemeral. It can be something like freedom or happiness
- Need gives the character their emotional core/weight.
- Need is what causes character growth.
- Need drives theme.
- Need gives your character’s actions meaning and purpose, just like want gives them agency.
- The thing about Need is it is internal, and rarely stated.
- Need is what your story is really about.
Quick stop here for some examples:
- Luke Skywalker wants to rescue the princess and reach the rebellion, but needs to realize that he is part of a binding whole, to trust his instincts.
- Katniss Everdeen wants to survive the Hunger Games, but needs to realize that she is more than a pawn in the games of the Capitol and must rebel to break free.
- Harry Potter wants to defeat Lord Voldemort, but needs to realize that it is love that will truly save him, and defeat darkness.
moving on.
3. Lie: This is the incorrect philosophy or wrongly-held worldview that the character has about the world.
“There’s nothing I can do about the Empire”, Luke Skywalker.
“It’s all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense”, Han Solo
“I don’t stick my neck out for nobody”, Rick from Casablanca
The lie is a powerful tool. Its the groundwork for the morals of your world, and the transformation of your character. It is also inherently wrong. The Lie can break in many ways, but suffice to say, this worldview will influence a lot of characters, and lead into theme.
- The lie is usually countered by the theme.
- This correct theme is usually stated by a character of little to no importance – at least in the eyes of the hero. For instance a truck driver in Grapes of Wrath is who offers the gem, “The way I see it, we are all part of one collective soul.”
- This theme is most commonly either “Collective over individual” or “Individuality over conforming to the machine.” I don’t know why that is.
- The Lie ultimately changes to the Truth, in the shape of the theme.
4. Ghost: The Ghost, Wound or Shard of Glass, is the singular event that caused the lie.
- In real life, we have dozens of instances that shape our worldview. In fiction, it is effective to distill it to one incident or act. It can be having your husband leave you for a princess (Medea) or the death of a family member, or the loss of a great love.
- This ghost has to make sense of the Lie. Your character has to believably follow the Lie.
These four together are mandatory to building a great character. These make it clear, more than anything, what your character’s currency is, what they value and in what order. This will lead you to naturally understanding what your character will do in any situation.