You probably already know that motivation is everything in a novel. Nearly everything worth reading flows from a character who wants something and actively goes after it.

In writing advice land, it’s popular to subdivide a character’s motivations into conscious motivations and unconscious motivations. Meaning, there’s something on the surface that’s motivating the character (saving the galaxy, defeating the dragon, figuring out what to eat for lunch) and there’s something lurking underneath the surface in their psyche that’s driving them (pride, vanity, hunger).

I don’t think about it this way.

Believe me, I’ve tried. I’ve dreamed up wonderfully complex outlines that chart a character’s unconscious motivations with psychological complexity that would make Freud blush.

It never worked for me.

Here’s what does work: showing a character’s hopes and dreams with a great deal of specificity.

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