Creating Compelling Characters: Backstory, Goals, and Motivations

Jill Williamson is a chocolate loving, daydreaming, creator of kingdoms. She writes weird books for teens in lots of weird genres like, fantasy (Blood of Kings trilogy), science fiction (Replication), and dystopian (The Safe Lands trilogy). Find Jill on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or on her author website.

We took a week off from working through my new character worksheet (click here to download a copy), but today we are back at it. We are looking at backstory, goals, and motivations. And I put in the personality and conflict parts too, since they didn't really seem to fit in their own blog post. If you heard me teach this at OYAN, I've changed a few things about Trevyn since that talk. The more your write, the more you'll zero in on who your character really is.

First, backstory. It's important to know some of the things that happened to your character in the past as those things made him who he is today. And some of those things haunt him. And we want to help our characters grow in some way. And to do that, we need to know what his weaknesses are.

So here is Trevyn. He is the third son to a king who is a little nuts. He is fourteen at the start of book one, two months away from turning fifteen, which is the age of majority in my world.

Important Backstory

-Two months before Trevyn was born, several of his older brothers were given as human sacrifices to the god Barthos. As the third queen’s firstborn son, this made her an obsessively protective mother, smothering him.
-His brother Willek, who is ten years older, witnessed the sacrifice and was deeply affected by the deaths of his brothers. This caused Willek to be very protective of Trevyn.
-Trevyn grew up in a castle filled with politics. His father has four wives and people are always looking for ways to get on Trevyn’s good side to gain power at court. Trevyn hates all of that.
-As a lesser prince, the king decreed that Trevyn would  become a priest.
-Father Tomek took Trevyn out to sea for the first time when he was six. The sea became a safe-haven for Trevyn from his paranoid mother.
-A year ago, a girl named Shessy Wallington pretended to like Trevyn. He found out later that his brother Janek put her up to it with the promise that he’d get Trevyn to marry her, thus making her a princess. Trevyn hasn’t trusted girls—or his brother Janek—ever since.

Character’s Past

Happiest moment: When Trevyn took his first ride in a ship with Father Tomek and learned to draw a map of the coast. Both sailing and map-making became an important part of Trevyn's life from that moment on.
Dark moment: When Trevyn was eight, he set out to explore the castle and found his way into his father's privy chamber. He was proud of himself for not getting lost and was certain that his father would be pleased to see him. But when his father caught sight of him, he ordered the guards to take Trevyn back to his mother and lock him up for a week until he learned his place. This was the first of many moments when his father sent him away. Trevyn knows his father does not love him and never will.
Lie he believes: His live is meaningless—he doesn’t matter to anyone, except as a pawn.
Mantra he lives by: Life is too short to worry about anything, especially what people think. He should enjoy today because no one truly cares for him anyway, and tomorrow he might be locked up again. (An interesting thing about his mantra: He forces himself to believe it, but daily his instincts tell him differently, that his mother and Hinck and Father Tomek and Willek all love him. But the lie he believes about himself is stronger than the evidence that opposes this statement. Something huge is going to have to happen to change his mind about this.)

Goals & Motivations

Day-to-Day Goal: Explore wherever he can and perfect his maps of the coastline.
Story Goal (external): Solve a murder.
Story Goal threatened by: Evil priests.
The Push/Pull that makes him act: His room is ransacked.
Second Goal: Spend time with Mielle.
Conflicts with first goal: Both goals demand his time. Plus he doesn’t want to put Mielle in danger.
Goal he lives by (internal): Freedom.
Emotional Life Goal: To matter. To be someone’s #1.
How this shows: By proving to others that he is right/good enough.
He most values (take it away): Freedom. (This isn't always the same as the goal a character lives by, but it happens to be for Trevyn.)
Willing to die for: That his people would know the truth.
Greatest dream: To find new land beyond the bowl.
Noble Cause: To go where no man has gone before—and in that prove himself unique and worthy.
Greatest fear (make it happen in the story): Being locked up/loss of freedom.

Personality & Attributes

Personality descriptors: Impulsive, easy-going, creative, loyal, guarded, passive aggressive—purposely risks his life (No one would miss him, anyway).
Methods of action (When faced with a problem, how does he try to solve it? How does he act?): Works best alone, perfectionist. Must have meaning or he won’t do it. Or, if someone tells him he can't, then he's going to do it for sure.
Methods of evaluation (How does your character judge situations, life, himself, others?): Observes, reads.
Skills: Artistic, detailed, fast, athletic, smart.
Flaws: Sensitive, evasive, shuts down quickly, can't take rejection, distances himself from people, comes off as cold, emotional, hates criticism, acts indifferent towards his friends.
Traits/Quirks: Acts uninterested, fearless, untrusting, doesn’t like to sit, never gets lost.
Hobbies: Map-making, exploring, medieval parkour, climbing, any life-risking activity, annoying his mother.

Extra Conflict & Growth
Story change he must face: God is real.
How can I make life worse? Take away all his real friends (Hinck, Willek, Father Tomek, and Cadoc).
What can I threaten? The truth. His freedom. His choices.
What else can I take away? Mielle.
Six things that need fixing (For more on this topic, read this post.): Impulsive, stubborn, powerless to make his own choices, has a subconscious death wish, untrusting (afraid to risk his heart), he acts indifferent to his friends (Hinck).

Do any of these topics on the character worksheet help you as you work to create your characters? Which is the most interesting to you? Is there one you've never thought of before?