Desires

Definition

Desires refer to the driving forces that motivate characters to take specific actions throughout a story. They are essential for creating compelling narratives, as they provide insight into a character's motivations and their backstory, helping to shape their journey and interactions with others. Understanding a character's desires allows writers to construct believable arcs and conflicts that resonate with audiences.

5 Must Know Facts For Your Next Test

1. Desires can be both conscious and subconscious, with characters sometimes unaware of deeper motivations that drive their actions.
2. The complexity of a character's desires can lead to internal conflicts, where they struggle with conflicting wants or needs.
3. Characters' desires are often linked to their backstories, revealing how past experiences shape their current motivations.
4. Desires can evolve over the course of a narrative, reflecting changes in a character's perspective or circumstances.
5. Effective storytelling often involves contrasting characters' desires, creating tension and enriching the narrative through conflict and resolution.

Review Questions

• How do desires influence a character's decisions and actions throughout a narrative?
  • Desires serve as the foundational motivators for a character's decisions and actions, guiding them toward specific goals and outcomes. When characters have clear desires, it helps establish their intentions, making their choices more relatable and engaging for the audience. As characters pursue their desires, the resulting actions create opportunities for conflict and growth, ultimately shaping the narrative trajectory.
• In what ways can conflicting desires lead to richer storytelling and character development?
  • Conflicting desires can create complex scenarios that challenge characters, forcing them to make difficult choices that reveal their true nature. This tension not only enhances dramatic stakes but also contributes to character depth, as audiences witness the struggles characters face when their wants clash with one another or external circumstances. As characters navigate these conflicts, they often undergo significant growth or change, which enriches the overall narrative.
• Evaluate the role of backstory in shaping a character's desires and how this connection impacts the overall plot structure.
  • Backstory plays a crucial role in shaping a character's desires by providing context for why they want what they do. By understanding a character's past experiences, relationships, and traumas, writers can create more nuanced motivations that inform present actions and decisions. This connection between backstory and desires influences plot structure by establishing clear stakes and goals for characters to pursue, which in turn drives the narrative forward as they face challenges aligned with those desires.

Related terms

Goals: Goals are specific outcomes or achievements that characters strive for, often stemming from their desires and shaping their decisions and actions.

Conflict: Conflict arises when characters face obstacles in pursuing their desires, creating tension and drama that propel the narrative forward.

Character Arc: A character arc is the transformation or growth a character undergoes throughout a story, often driven by their desires and the challenges they face in fulfilling them.