What’s Your Story?

Ever wonder why you do what you do?

Why do you say the words that align on your lips?

Why do you act and then react to someone’s actions and reactions?

Why do some people act in peace?

Why do others act in volatility?

Why do you give some people more time than others?

Why do you set goals and then pursue them?

Or not? And give up?

Why do you follow pursuits engrained in the fiber of your being?

Why…

The answer, I learned from my characters, in its simplest form boils down to ‘Desire’.

Desire drives characters to make decisions.

Desire drives characters to choose a course of action.

Desire propels characters to act.

Which in turn opens the gateway to another’s actions and reaction.

Like a game of tennis…

And so on…

In book 1, Dynasties, Winds of Fire Series, my protagonist, Sheetal, chooses to stand by her parents’ decision and honors her family by marrying the man she loves instead of honoring herself. Rakesh, the antagonist, agrees to marry Sheetal to hold up his family’s prestige and surrenders his own desire to remain single.

The result?

Sheetal and Rakesh are stuck with one another in a loveless marriage.

There’s no turning back.

Naïve and wishful, Sheetal believes if she can prove to her parents that this marriage was set up for failure, she can end this relationship and revert to her true love. However, over time Sheetal learns the past is over and no longer holds. She can’t turn back time and she can’t go back to what existed. It’s gone.

There’s only moving forward.

And with that Sheetal must realign her desires.

The change in desire realigns the story’s direction because story at its simplest, is a sequence of events that follow a character(s)’s journey.But where do you go with a story if what the character wants (desire) is not what the character needs?

There’s a difference. A huge difference.

A want or desire is what the character would like to have. A need is what is important for the character’s development or growth and might easily be in direct conflict with his/her desire. The character might not even be aware of his/her need. In fact a character might do everything to jeopardize the need in favor of desire, thereby curtailing his/her own growth.

Which explains why characters do what they do.

But how do authors deal with this dichotomy?

In The Kite Runner by International Bestselling Author Khaled Hosseini, the protagonist Amir lives in America and has found stability in his life until that phone call. That one phone call beckons Amir back to Afghanistan. Amir doesn’t want to return and face the ghosts of his past but he needs to. The higher calling sets the course of the story. In Shanghai Girls by New York Times Bestselling Author Lisa See, sisters Pearl and May find their lives torn apart in war-ravaged Shanghai. Their life of luxury is gone and so are centuries’ old sacred values and traditions. The sisters yearn for the past and want to piece their lives together but fate sails them to America where they need to be. The sequel, Dreams of Joy, then follows with the next generation.

Characters to an author are real. They live, breathe and exist beyond the pages. Characters are people with everyday conflicts, issues, problems and as true as the back of the author’s hand. How these characters react depends on their personalities which are shaped by childhood forces, experiences and their perception of the world–the characters’, not the author’s. Though often times characters are extensions of the author and thus comes about the story world. Just like yours and mine.

So next time you wonder why characters do what they do,

Just look in the mirror.

Now, what about you?

I’d love to hear your story. What did you want and what did you realize you needed? Please share in the comments section below and don’t forget to click ‘Submit’ when you’re done!