Deeper Character Motivation
Using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs for Character Development
Aug 15, 2008
Knowing what a character wants helps create well-rounded people in your fiction. But what’s underneath that desire to rob a bank, ski down a vertical cliff, or fall in love?
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs may not seem to apply to fiction, where a character's needs deal more with getting the guy, solving the murder, or restoring family relationships. But understanding the theory can help writers get at the core of their characters.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs says that the most basic, primitive needs must be met to form a foundation before higher needs can be considered. The seven needs, beginning with the most basic, are:
- Physiological: air, food, water, sleep
- Safety: shelter, physical and financial security
- Social (Love/Belonging): family, friendship, acceptance in a group
- Esteem: confidence, respect, acknowledgement
- Self-Actualization: morality, wisdom, personal potential
- Cognitive: acquire and understand knowledge
- Aesthetic: appreciate and create beauty and structure
Exceptions to Maslow’s Hierarchy
While Maslow contended that a person must meet a basic need before moving on, real life proves that this is not always true. A starving mother may give food to her child, a person can let an opponent win the game, a writer may decide to survive on very little food to be able to write without working a steady job.
Other psychologists since have re-defined and expanded on these needs, including attachment, intimacy, comfort, trust/dependency, occupation and inclusion, and control.
What Really Drives a Character?
With these basic needs in mind, writers can deepen their characters by determining how the things a character wants (revenge, romance, a promotion, to solve a mystery, to hold a marriage together) are caused by what he or she really needs.
- A bully doesn’t pick on someone just to be mean. Does it make him accepted with his friends? Is the other worker is a threat to his job? Does he think he’ll be seen as powerful if he forces someone into submission?
- Is the village wise woman completely altruistic in helping others, or does she need the acknowledgment of others or the self-respect that comes with giving advice? Does she need the empowerment and control the position gives her? The status within her group?
- And does the corporate power broker simply enjoy the challenge and excitement of business, or does he need the outward show of respect to feel accepted? Or is he driven to success to make up for a past failure?
Writers Know More than Characters
It is important to note, however, that just because a writer knows the character’s deepest needs does not mean that the character realizes it. A woman who was shoved to the background for years while her sister dealt with cancer won’t connect that experience with her need for belonging and her desire to be the life of the party now. But you as a writer know that, and you can let that understanding come out in other ways.
Character Writing Exercise
- In one column, make a list of all major and most minor characters in your story.
- In another column, write a phrase describing what they want in your story – to go to college, to win a championship, to marry the hero, etc.
- In a third column, think about each character and write their core psychological need – the one most important to them at the time of the story.
Does this change how you think about a character? How he or she may act? Does it change how characters relate to one another?
As you continue working on your story, your awareness of these core needs will create deeper characters and a richer book.
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