Hello. I'm back again, like a bad penny; turning up when and where you least expect it and being useless in the answering of your needs. Or, something like that. At any rate, it's been a while and I'm back again. Been busy doing this and that. Mostly, I've been working at the sequel to Dolly Games, and I have to say that I expect it to be fairly good.
And that brings me to the title of this post: What motivates the characters. Well, that can be any number of things. I try to write my characters as though they stepped out of 'real life', so I feel that they need to be motivated by the kinds of things that I see motivating people all over the world.
Now, motivations are relative to whatever group of people you are confronted with; whether it be the police officer who just pulled you over, or the salesman who is trying to get you to buy something you really don't want or need. Well, people want to survive, so whatever they need to do to do that ranks high on any list. Working to earn their 'daily bread', cheating others out of money to take the easy and quick way, or sweating and swinking to earn it by the sweat of their brow. Without money, people can't buy food or provide shelter for their families. Money is a given in this context.
Then there is sex or love. How many marriages have been ruined because one of the parties wanted a new sexual partner? Countless, isn't it? How many people have decided they were married or attached to the wrong person and wanted to make a change because they've 'fallen in love' with someone else? Well, that's also a thing that can't be numbered. Given that status as an unquantifiable occurrence, sex or love are also a given.
POWER. Who wants power? Any takers? No, you say? Look around you. The deacon or elder in your church who politics to get the church to go in the direction he wants, wants power. The man or woman you work for who pushes you to perform so he or she can get a raise or promotion also wants power. With power, sex, love and money are expected to follow. And, any of the others can be viewed as an avenue to POWER.
So, you see? These four motivations are basic and form the foundation upon which our world is built. What's that you say? Religion isn't like what I described? Not all deacons and elders are like that? My reply must be: Some are benign and even very good people, but make no mistake; they have a will to power or they would not be who and what they are. I'm not being cynical. I'm making an observation based on what I have witnessed throughout my life. People, good or bad, are motivated by these four things. Take whatever they claim motivates them and reduce it like a gravy or sauce until you see what it is made of. You will find one or more of these four things.
And that is what motivates my characters. POWER, SEX, LOVE and MONEY. Sure, you can have one or more of them without the others, but then, of what use are they? They may be satisfying to have, but will provide little in the way of security if they don't lead to the others. Everybody wants them. You say you don't believe that I'm right? Okay. That's your opinion and you're free to express it. Just...try to live without these things. You'll see that I'm right.
That, in a nutshell, is what motivates my characters. I try to make them believable by making them visceral and driven by what drives the people I see every day. They are tortured by the things that torture 'real' people and are haunted by the doubts that haunt 'real' people.
With that, I'll leave you today. I really need to spend some time in my fictitious city of Port Morgan and give my characters something to do.
Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Dolly Games, It Happens Every Day and others.
