In 7 Key Questions to Ignite Story Character Development we covered finding the red thread desire of your characters to discover what will keep them going throughout their stories. In this article, we delve deeper into that topic with an exercise you can apply to any character, including your own. You will find an example of this exercise applied to The Great Gatsby at the end of this article.
Hierarchy of Needs
Desires can often be more complex and layered than appears on the surface. This is because desires are linked to unmet needs. The difference between wants and needs is that a need is something that is necessary to live and function. A want is something that can improve your quality of life. Your character's red thread desire, and any other desires they have, may be linked to something they ultimately need to live, even if they don't realise it. Needs can be grouped into several categories, forming the basis of our wellbeing. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, these categories are:
Self-actualisation: desire to become the most that one can be
Esteem: respect, self-esteem, status, recognition, strength, freedom
Love and belonging: friendship, intimacy, family, sense of connection
Safety: (personal) security employment, resources, health, property
Physiologcial: air, water, food, shelter, sleep, clothing, reproduction
Abraham Maslow created this hierarchy of human needs to explain what drives us. The hierarchy starts with basic needs like food and water and ends with more abstract needs like self-fulfilment. When we meet the lowest need in the pyramid, we move on to the next one in the hierarchy. The same goes for your characters.
An Exercise for Exploring Underlying Needs
Asking the 'why?'
Take your character’s red thread desire and place it into one of the five Hierarchy of Needs categories. You can reflect on the bigger (often unconscious) goal behind their desire by dissecting it with the 'why?' question until you reach a natural end. Example:
My character wants run a marathon.
Why? Because they want to prove to themselves they are able to.
Why? Because they used to not have a great condition (and now they want to prove to themselves they do).
Why? Because they have a health condition that makes it more difficult for them to work out and run.
Why? Well, this is where the why stops. My character did not have any power over whether they got the health condition or not. I'll place this red thread desire in the Safety needs category, because my character struggles a lot with the idea their health condition holds them back. They want to prove to themselves that they can do things others do that they consider 'healthy'.
There is a chance the desire crosses over into another category, but pick the main one for the purpose of this exercise. Doing will provide a larger part of the story's theme to develop your character's arc.
The 5-Question Deep Dive
After you've picked your main category, you're ready to explore this connection more deeply. Ask yourself the following questions:
Does the unmet need stem from somewhere in your character’s past (e.g. upbringing, family, environment, etc.)?
In what ways is the character’s unmet need linked to the theme(s) of your story?
Are there any touchpoints in your story where your character will be challenged to face their unmet need in different forms? And if so, how does that affect them?
Are there any other desires your character has that fall into the category of this unmet need?
Is your character able to meet their unmet need throughout your story?
If so, was that through obtaining their desires or something else (they didn’t know they could obtain to fulfil this need)?
If not, what impact does that have on the character and their desires?
By taking the time to reflect on these questions, you can gain a deeper understanding of the connections between your characters and the themes of your story. This awareness can help you create specific moments (touchpoints) in your character's story that showcase realistic and consistent reactions and behaviours when challenged to face their unmet needs.
Exercise Example: The Great Gatsby
To give you an even better idea of how to apply this exercise, I've applied it to The Great Gatsby. If you haven’t read the book, feel free to apply the exercise on a character from another story. Note that each exercise is a subjective interpretation of a character and their inner workings.
What is Gatsby’s red thread desire?
Gatsby wants to ‘win’ Daisy, in order to be with her.
What unmet need(s) is Gatsby trying to fulfil?
At first glance, you might think Gatsby is trying to fulfil his need for love and belonging. Isn’t the story about him being in love with Daisy after all? This is also what Gatsby himself might think when asked about it. However, when delving deeper into the reason why he wants Daisy, we could come to a different conclusion. Daisy is the type of woman he dreams to be with because she represents the lifestyle he wants to have: to live out the American Dream. Before Gatsby met Daisy, he was already becoming obsessed with the idea of being a successful man. So why did he fall in love with Daisy? With Daisy by his side, he would become everything he ever wanted to be. In a way, she is a symbol of status and achievement for him, so much that he was willing to chase after wealth for her. She would complete the image. Is that really love? We could therefore also draw the conclusion he is trying to fulfil his need for esteem instead.
Did this unmet need stem from somewhere in Gatsby’s past?
Yes, Gatsby grew up as the son of poor farmers in North Dakota, dreaming of success and wealth. He may have had unmet psychosocial and safety needs in his childhood, which led him to chase so desperately after esteem and so that he would never have to go through that again.
Are there any other desires Gatsby has that fall into the category of his unmet need?
He wants to show off to Nick, people to attend his parties and talk about him, and for people to believe he’s always been wealthy.
In what ways is Gatsby’s unmet need linked to the theme of the story?
The theme of the story is the chase after The American Dream, which links perfectly to Gatsby’s unmet need for esteem. The definition of The American Dream is ‘the ideal by which equality of opportunity is available to any American, allowing the highest aspirations and goals to be achieved’. With Gatsby born into poverty and wanting to become the complete opposite, the unmet need is also directly linked to what people in society (in that time and place) were taught was the ‘best life’.
Are there any touchpoints in the story where Gatsby is challenged to face his unmet need in different forms? And if so, how does that affect him?
Daisy is the final symbol of obtaining esteem. One example of a moment where Gatsby is faced with his unmet need in the story, is when he finds out that Daisy doesn’t actually like his extravagant parties. He becomes disheartened. At first glance it may look like he’s disappointed she’s not having a good time, but when you think about it it’s more likely that when his ultimate symbol of esteem doesn’t approve of his esteem, he could never obtain true esteem. She is the final step to his unmet need. Whatever else he has obtained doesn’t matter if the symbol of his unmet need disapproves.
Is Gatsby able to meet their unmet need throughout your story?
No, Gatsby dies before ever getting with Daisy. By the fact that Gatsby’s funeral is scarcely attended, we can see even more that he wasn’t chasing after fulfilling the unmet need for love and belonging. All the people who attended his parties and were his so-called friends appear to never truly have cared for him as a person, nor might they even truly have respected him like he sought after.