I just thought this might be an interesting tidbit for any readers here who AREN’T dramatic writers, surely there are a few? The bit is this: about 90% of writing for the screen or the stage or for books, probably? Is banging your head against the office wall / computer screen / white board trying to figure out what this imaginary person you created WANTS.

and sometimes it’s like, I don’t know dude. I just made them up.

But this is what matters most. What they want. In a musical, they sing an entire song about it, announcing it to you. Next time you watch a movie, pay attention to the first 15 minutes, and your main character will probably say to a tertiary character, or the camera, or express through action, I WANT (THING THAT MOVIE IS ABOUT) and depending on the elegance or subtly of the movie it will be bad, or maybe even good. But you’ll hear about it, explicitly or subtly.

And finding this want is sometimes the hardest part of the job, and also THE job. It doesn’t matter if it’s a new idea, or if you’ve been working on it for five years, if they’re a stranger or live in a different time or are based on yourself, it’s always an elusive question and the answer is ever changing. And if you can’t answer it, you don’t know what your character wants, or you know but you can’t articulate it clearly, you have nothing, you have boxes of ornaments but no tree.

And the funny thing is, and IS it funny? because sometimes I truly loose sleep over it — actual human people go through life with ever shifting wants. It changes by the second, by the day. But when we’re trying to tell a story, when we’re expecting an audience to latch on emotionally and root for our guy (another thing writers bang our heads against various surfaces about) we need their want to be simple, clear, and steadfast.

What does that say about us and what we expect from our stories? Do we want our characters wants to be more trackable than our own because our own are ever shifting, and in a sense it’s always aspirational that this character just seems to KNOW? I want love. I want revenge. I want a doughnut.

I WANT to always have a clear answer about what my character wants, but my concepts of emotion, human nature, the people close to me, they’re always shifting, and so, so am I. I WANT to pretend like after 22 some years of this, I want to always know what my characters want, but the truth is, sometimes I just…don’t.

What do YOU want? Please share in the comments and I’ll STEAL IT FOR A CHARACTER.