Character Motivation

Character Motivation

What is Character Motivation?

• Is the reason why a character wants to do something in the story

• Maybe....they want an object, want to do something

Open Ended

If I said, "I am going to clean my room so that I can go to the movies." what is my motivation for cleaning my room?

Questions you can ask when thinking about character motivation...

• Why is the character doing that?

• Why is the character acting that way?

• What do you think the character is hoping to get from this?

Multiple Choice

The class scares were out! Kenny was so nervous to see the scores, he knew he didn't study enough and the test was so hard. Well, sure enough, he failed. He was shocked to see that he was one of only two people who failed. What? He had to find a way to improve his scores! He couldn't be a failure, so he asked his teacher for another chance to take the test. She said yes and Kenny got to studying right away. He knew he could do it!

What was Kenny's motivation?

• embarrassment

• to pass the test

• being nervouse

Multiple Choice

Trent’s bike was getting too small and just wasn’t cool anymore. Trent was watching TV and saw the new Bike Racer 2000 and knew he had to have it. He could no longer ride that old bike. All he could think about was how amazing he would look on the new bike and how smooth the bike would ride. He counted how much money he had and realized he needed $50. He went out and did chores for his parents and jobs for the neighbors until he earned $50. He went and bought the bike right away. Woohoo!

What was Trent's motivation?

• the new bike

• doing chores

• $50

Multiple Choice

Julie had a school mission project to complete. She was given a whole month to get the project done but had procrastinated and now only had one week to get it done! Julie’s mom found out that Julie hadn’t even started the project, and she was very angry. She told Julie that she was grounded until it was done. Julie couldn’t believe her mom grounded her over a lame project. Julie couldn’t handle being grounded, so she decided to just get the project done.

What was Julie's motivation?

• to get the project done

• not wanting to be grounded

• her mom