Because I’m currently in Alaska with my family, I’ll be pulling posts from the archives for the next couple of weeks. This one caught my eye because of our conversation a couple weeks ago about 8 Tips For Creating Meaningful Conflict In Your Stories and how conflict and character goals go hand-in-hand.

Here is a list of seven questions you can ask to create compelling character goals:

1. What is your main character’s primary external goal?

Another way of phrasing this is, “What is the number one thing your character wants?”

In Cars, Lightning McQueen wants to win the Piston Cup.

In Tangled, Rapunzel wants to see the floating lights.

As you can see in both of these examples, I’m talking about a goal that your characters KNOWS they have, that they TAKE ACTION on during the course of the story, and that DRIVES THE MAIN PLOT.

2. Why does he or she want this?

This is where the fun starts. Sometimes your character knows exactly why they want something. Lightning McQueen wants to win the Piston Cup because he wants the glory. Rapunzel wants to see the floating lights because she has a gut feeling that they mean something unique to her.  

But there is also often a piece of this that the character doesn’t know, or that they can’t yet articulate or admit to themselves.

Lightning McQueen would never admit that he struggles to feel good enough, and that he thinks winning the race will give him the sense of acceptance that he craves. Rapunzel, on the other hand, knows that she’s craving adventure. Yes, she thinks seeing the lights will be special, but also she’s just desperate to get out of that tower and go do something.  

When we have big life goals, we tend to have multiple reasons for wanting them, right? Some are good, likable reasons. Others are more self-serving or less socially acceptable. Teasing out these complexities will help you figure out how to push your character’s buttons. 

3. How does your character try to achieve their goal, and what stands in their way?

Wouldn’t it be strange if Lightning McQueen’s goal was to figure out who his parents are, and yet he spends the whole movie trying to get to California for his big race? That would make no sense, right?

Figuring out your character’s goal is almost always equal to figuring out the plot of your book.   

Once you know what your character wants, then you can figure out what actions they can take to try to get it. Because it wouldn’t be very enjoyable if Lightning’s goal was to win the Piston Cup, and he spent the movie watching other cars race. 

Not that you can’t have some things happen to fall upon your character. In Tangled, Flynn Rider shows up in Rapunzel’s tower, but then she seizes upon that opportunity. Some things will be out of your character’s control, but your character needs to be as active as possible. That’s one reason why The Hunger Games is such a powerful story, because Katniss chooses to take her sister’s place.

And while the character’s goal should make sense, it also needs to be big enough that they can’t do it alone, and that they have to overcome obstacles.

4. How does this goal evolve over the course of the story?

This is another question that will help you solidify the plot of your story.    When Tangled starts, Rapunzel wants to see the floating lights. As the story goes on, Rapunzel wants to see the floating lights and she doesn’t want to lose her newfound freedom. It would feel false to the viewer if Rapunzel was content to see the lights and then return to her tower forever.

Or another way to think about this is that as your character moves closer to meeting their goal, there should be times when they see that the goal is just a piece of who they want to be. It isn’t “everything,” the way they once thought it was.

5. What are several other external goals they have during the story? 

As your character works to achieve their goal, it’s natural for other goals to crop up. Often this arises in the romance thread of the story. Rapunzel wants to see the floating lights and become free, but she also wants to be with Flynn.

In Cars, Lightning McQueen wants to get out of Radiator Springs so he can get to California to win his race, but he also comes to care about the town, and he adopts Sally’s dream of it becoming great again.   Giving your character multiple dreams is a great plotting technique, because it means you can put them in situations where they have to prioritize one over the other. This is how you set them up to make personal and meaningful sacrifices. Even with how many times I’ve watched Cars, I tear up every time Lightning McQueen hits his brakes moments before crossing the finish line.  

6. What is your main character’s internal goal?

This is a goal that is often hidden from the main character, but it’s clear to the reader. Lightning McQueen longs to be accepted for who he is, not what he can do. That’s what he finds in Radiator Springs. He doesn’t know he needs that until he finds it, but the audience has known since we saw him have that phone call with his agent.

Another way you can think about this is that the external goal is what the character wants, but the internal goal is what they need. It’s the heart of the story.

7. What do the other characters want?

The other characters in the story should have goals too. That’s where a lot of organic conflict will come from. Lightning and Chick both want to be the next racing hot shot, so it’s obvious how their goals conflict.

But let’s consider Sally for a moment. Sally’s goal is for the town to return to it’s heyday. Lightning’s goal—to win the Piston Cup—and Sally’s goal don’t conflict with each other until Lightning ruins the road, and Sally is bent on him paying for what he did.

See how that works?

I talk about this in the Story Workbook Tutorial (which you can get for free when you sign up for Go Teen Writers Notes) but something I brainstorm is the main goal for each of my prominent characters. I love how seeing their goals laid out side by side gives me all kinds of ideas for conflict, not just with my villain, but also the rest of the cast.

I want to hear what goals your character has! I won’t be able to respond to comments right away, but I will eventually!