Great Beginnings—The Core Attributes of a Strong Protagonist: Clear Goals and Complex Motivations

Great beginnings hook readers, but before them, they hook agents, editors, publishers, script readers, directors, actors, producers, and studios.

When you think of great beginnings, one of the best ways to start your story is with a strong and memorable protagonist. Almost nothing pulls a reader in emotionally faster. We often hear we need to create an instant empathetic hero. How do we go about doing this?

In this discussion and future discussions on this subject, I’d like to look at the core attributes of a strong protagonist. I’m going to list several attributes now and later. Combining these various discussions, use this list to explore the story beginning you’re currently writing for a new story, or if you’re in the editing phase, use this list to note where you might be able to make the main character more potent or more empathetic. Don’t be tempted to throw in the kitchen sink, and include all the tools I’ll discuss in this series. Using everything would be like dumping every spice in your spice rack into the pot of soup; it will not give you a strong character but a mishmash in grand formulaic proportions and something unreadable. Instead, look at this list (and the additions coming) and see which items I mention that you might be able to incorporate organically into the story in flavor and harmony with the spine and personality of your protagonist.

Today, we will discuss creating a robust and empathetic protagonist using clear goals and complex motivations.

One of the best ways to create a strong protagonist is to give that character a clear goal that is understandable, recognizable, important, and consequential. For instance, a goal to save a loved one's life, to win a competition, or to uncover a hidden truth. No little goals are allowed. By doing this, we’re in the game right from the start. As readers, we care; from the beginning, we want the hero to get there because the goal is so big that it matters. It is one that we can empathize with and thus allows us to empathize with the main character. It is clear to the character and unambiguous to us. From the start, we know what the target is. We are given purpose, just as the protagonist has a purpose. Even if we don’t reach the goal—and often, the goal will change as the story progresses, the hero matures, and the protagonist experiences growth—we have the first path before us, one that we can understand and one with which we can root for with the character’s success. This makes us a partner in the character’s story from the first page.

When creating this goal (and it must be a singular goal for clarity and emphasis), our focus isn’t on the goal itself, as we might think, but on believable motivations. For interest, this goal must be complex, relatable, deep, and plausible within the protagonist's reach and clearly out of his reach. By doing so, readers can engage with your protagonist from the start on whatever level the reader brings to the page or screen.

The first step in creating complex motivations for your protagonist is to combine external and internal goals. Both must be present. The external goals are tangible and quantifiable goals that the character wants to achieve, and as readers, we know those right up front. These are combined with internal goals that delve into the protagonist's emotional and psychological desires, such as overcoming their past, fears, loneliness, or self-worth. These are personal and emotional aspects that readers and viewers can relate to. For example, an external goal could be to win a race, while the internal goal could be to prove one's worth to a disapproving father. Both types of goals are necessary for a fully developed protagonist.

Expanding complex emotions means making the protagonist multi-dimensional by bringing in subgoals. These smaller goals fall under the big goal you’ve made explicit for the character from the opening pages. Rather than exposition to explain who a character is, these goals will highlight your protagonist because they are smaller, personal, and relevant to who they are as people.

I love conflict, and an excellent way to highlight goals is to give the character goals that conflict. Rarely are we as humans united in our thoughts; neither is your protagonist. Conflict in every scene, between all characters, and within the protagonist brings a human richness that we all understand. We will be empathetic towards that character because we get it. Forcing a protagonist to be at odds with himself as he pursues big and smaller goals brings a sense of relatability that all of us reading will understand. For instance, a character may have a goal to succeed in their career, but also a goal to maintain a healthy work-life balance. These goals naturally conflict and create tension, making the character more interesting and relatable.

This complex, layered, and conflicting series of main goals mixed with subgoals from the opening pages makes the goals and the protagonist dimensional. Have goals affect all areas: personal, societal, relational, and philosophical. Have them conflict with each other. As readers and viewers, we will understand those conflicts, the act of trying to be everything to everyone (an impossible task), and it will draw us to the protagonist.

The goals are tied to the protagonist's backstory because the characters do not work in a vacuum. This creates character richness right from the beginning. Many of our goals find their motivation in our past experiences, especially those times of trauma and emotional hurt. Protagonist dimensions are enriched by utilizing the past. I wouldn’t focus excessively on the protagonist’s past at the beginning of a story (save that for the middle when those elements can be revealed) but certainly have that unhappy or unfortunate past affect the goals and conflicts right from the beginning. This foreshadowing hints at something hidden and creates a sense of mystery that, at the start of the story, will make the reader want to continue onward to try to understand more.

Also, don’t always have a character be as generous as they might appear. We all carry with us secret and hidden agendas that we don’t share with others and even don’t share between our unconscious and our consciousness ourselves. Hint at this in the beginning. Again, this creates mystery and suspense, making the reader want to learn more and figure it out. Express the goal clearly. Imply why they want this goal. But as the writer, know there may be a deeper-seated reason why the protagonist wants to achieve this, and as the story plays out, it may help the protagonist achieve his end, or it may even be their undoing.

In creating complex motivations, always include the emotional stakes. It’s one thing to allow the reader to think and understand goals, but it is the emotions presented that readers care about, and it is the emotions that will pull the reader in. Pulling the reader in will hook the reader right from the story's beginning.

As the protagonist moves toward his goal and maybe smaller subgoals in harmony and conflict at the beginning of the story, enrich the plot by having one or more of the goals inadvertently create new goals or challenges for the protagonist that produce unintended consequences that then become new or refined goals, extensions of the earlier ones. We’ve all been in situations where we thought we wanted something, only to discover that what we thought we wanted wasn’t what we wanted at all. It was something similar, something we couldn’t see right off, something that we suppressed, something opposite, something that we were afraid to acknowledge, something that was so deep in us that we had never given it voice. To create complex protagonist motivations, use this natural progression of goal unfolding to help the character at the beginning of the story get a vision of what is essential prior to them going into the middle of the story.

Tangible benefits from accomplishing a goal are lovely, but what matters to the reader are the ethical and moral dilemmas presented within the character's complex motivations that reveal who a protagonist is and the character’s true beliefs and feelings. This sort of depth is rich. We are our core values whether we wish to acknowledge them or not. Characters are the same way, and part of the joy of reading a story is experiencing a character's growth as they learn who they really are. This mirrors our lives as we try to know who we are daily. It makes the protagonist identifiable, and we empathize with them and their struggle.

In creating complex emotions, it is essential to note that goals change over time. They do for us; they will for your protagonist. This is part of your protagonist’s character arc. As I mentioned, start the story right at the beginning with well-defined and clear goals—main goal and subgoals—and then change them before they move into the middle part of the story. This marks the character's growth and creates interest for us, the readers.

As we build a strong protagonist, the complexity of a character’s motivations is exacerbated by obstacles and opposition from other characters. Make these conflicts strong and appear on the first page. Let your protagonist be challenged with the big goal and the smaller sub-goals. Make your protagonist’s goals questioned, as well as their priorities and even their choices. Make the protagonist play offensively to achieve what they think they want, even if later they realize that they don’t want that at all as the goals in their mind become more evident. This creates complete motivation.

Don’t forget that as you initially make the motivations complex, they must tie into the character's daily life to make them real. Goals and motivations, no matter how complex, need to be grounded in relatable and everyday perspectives that we, as readers, understand. Sure, these characters have these goals, but how do those goals affect their daily lives? What conflicts do these goals create in their jobs, relationships, and even their own minds?

Use those relationships to create complex motivations. How do they affect the relationships around them? How do the protagonist’s goals affect the goals of those closest to them? I hope that some will be supportive and in harmony while others will be disjointed and bring conflict. How does this affect the protagonist and his complex motivations? Does it make him determined more to move forward? Or does he succumb to mitigating circumstances to appease others, finding more peace in the relationship but more discomfort within his own soul? This can be a tremendous tool for bringing readers in.

Goals—perfect or unclearly imperfect—are rooted in something more significant. Make the protagonist’s goal representative of something larger than itself. It could be a noble concept, such as freedom, hope, forgiveness, redemption, or other ideals. It could also symbolize past hurts that we will see explored as the story goes on. (Again, don’t play heavy in the beginning. The beginning is a place for mystery. The rest of the story will play the mystery out.)

All too often, a protagonist will be shown at the beginning of a story with a vital goal, and this is good. Still, the story becomes predictably linear as the characters go through the necessary steps to achieve that goal, and they do so for a happy conclusion. It’s much more attractive to the reader to see a clear goal in the beginning and then, through learning the complete motivations behind the character, watch the protagonist realize, and maybe the reader realizes this before the character, which is always fun, that the goals are misguided or flawed. Making a character recognize his own foibles endears the protagonist to the reader because it layers depth, and it certainly is something we can all relate to, which makes us empathetic.

Motivation is made more complex when there is a deadline, or the character runs out of options before achieving the goal. Right from the start of the story, give the character a limited amount of time to achieve his goals and only a few options available. Let us know the consequences of not achieving the goal because the character ran out of time and options. Creating these time- and option-sensitive layers adds urgency to the protagonist and us readers and dramatically increases the complexity of the situation and the protagonist’s mental state, which will profoundly affect the rest of the story and the protagonist’s relationships with others.

We don’t always agree. As I said above, in the things we want, we are not always honest with others because we know that what we want disagrees with what another character might want for us and may be so extreme that the other character would vehemently disapprove. Increasing the strength of complex motivations, we could start the story right at the beginning with the character’s big and smaller goals at odds with their family, friends, community, or even their allies. There is plenty of room for conflicts starting the story this way, which are guaranteed to pull a reader in.

Complex motivations will, of course, influence the plot if they do not totally represent the plot. Making a protagonist’s goals clear from the start not only sets the direction for the protagonist and the reader but also sets the plot's direction into motion. Within the first few paragraphs, we know where this story is going and where it may succeed or fail. By knowing this, the reader is pulled in by that strong protagonist and is rooting for him as he moves forward right from the start.

No matter what we want, we are optimistic one day and pessimistic another about our chances of achieving our goals and the support we are getting from others. Your protagonist is the same way. To create complex motivations in a strong protagonist, use this attribute of inner conflict: good and bad days. Show the ups and downs. The character’s progression through the story should be a series of highs and lows. Bring the reader in from the beginning by showing this inner turmoil, belief, disbelief, and support and resistance from others, which all tie to the protagonist's clear and defined goal outlined in your opening pages.

To create complex motivations in the opening chapters, always include the immediate external motivators. Rather than describe the world and relationships of the protagonist, show the protagonist moving in this world. In these opening pages, something will be missing or wrong with the world, and they will be used as motivation for the character’s goals and actions. Realize that the protagonist might not have these goals if things were different in this world and these relationships. If all is well with the world, why change? Protagonists want something because their world is not well. Show these shortcomings in the first chapter.

Nothing comes easy. Not for us as writers and not for your protagonist. Show the tests and challenges to their goal right from the start. Don’t wait for the middle section of your story to start testing and challenging your protagonist. Having them amid tests and challenges immediately will bring the reader in. Have some challenges be small, but have something big right from the start, working to keep the protagonist in their stasis of unhappiness or unfulfillment. From the beginning, the reader will understand the protagonist’s feelings associated with this social or circumstantial box and empathize with your protagonist. Readers will want your character to escape that box and will be rooting for them.

By adding these complex motivations as part of the core attributes of a strong protagonist, a protagonist will, at once on those first pages, through the protagonist’s clear goals and complex motivations, become more dynamic, compelling, and thus relatable to the reader. Giving this in the first few pages at the beginning will enhance the story, the protagonist, and the reader’s enjoyment. Using complex motivations and all the conflicts from that right at the start of the story will engage the reader and keep them with you for the rest of your character’s journey. Win or fail, the protagonist is going to give the reader, right from the first page, a fantastic ride.

In future discussions, we’ll address more of how we can use the core attributes of a strong protagonist to create an unforgettable beginning to a story, one that hooks the reader right from the start and keeps them on the line until THE END.

In summary, here is a checklist for writing strong and memorable protagonists with clear goals and complex motivations that you can use for what we discussed. Use this checklist to evaluate your protagonist and their journey, especially in the opening pages of your story. These elements will help create a strong, empathetic, and dynamic character that hooks readers immediately.

Protagonist’s Goals

Is the protagonist’s main goal clear, significant, and consequential from the start?

Does the goal resonate with readers, making them care about the protagonist’s success?

Is the goal tangible and unambiguous, so readers know what the character is working toward?

Complex Motivations

Are there external goals (e.g., tangible achievements) driving the protagonist?

Are there internal goals (e.g., emotional or psychological needs) that reflect the protagonist’s deeper desires?

Do the protagonist’s motivations feel relatable, deep, and plausible within the story’s world?

Are the motivations rooted in the protagonist’s backstory or past experiences, particularly moments of trauma or emotional hurt?

Conflict and Layered Goals

Does the protagonist have conflicting goals that create internal or external tension?

Are there subgoals that highlight the protagonist’s personality and bring depth to their journey?

Do these goals conflict with the protagonist's world's societal, relational, personal, or philosophical aspects?

Does the protagonist face opposition or obstacles to their goals at once in the story?

Emotional and Relational Stakes

Are the emotional stakes tied to the protagonist’s goals clear and compelling?

Does the story show how the protagonist’s goals affect their relationships with others (e.g., friends, family, or allies)?

Are the protagonist’s goals at odds with the desires or expectations of those around them?

Mystery and Complexity

Is there an element of mystery or hidden agendas tied to the protagonist’s motivations?

Do these hidden aspects hint at more profound layers of the character’s personality or past?

Are the protagonist’s goals revealed gradually, allowing unintended consequences to arise and evolve?

Growth and Transformation

Does the protagonist’s goal evolve or change as the story progresses?

Are there moments where the protagonist questions whether their goal is misguided or flawed?

Is the character’s journey tied to a larger thematic concept (e.g., freedom, redemption, or self-discovery)?

Realism and Relatability

Are the protagonist’s goals and motivations grounded in relatable, everyday perspectives?

Does the story show how these goals affect the protagonist’s daily life, relationships, and mental state?

Does the protagonist experience good and bad days, reflecting ups and downs that make them more human?

Challenges and Tests

Are there tests or challenges to the protagonist’s goals present from the start of the story?

Does the protagonist face limited time or options, creating urgency for their journey?

Do the opening scenes highlight a significant conflict that traps the protagonist in discomfort or struggle?

Ethical and Moral Dilemmas

Do the protagonist’s motivations reveal their core beliefs and values?

Are ethical or moral dilemmas tied to the protagonist’s goals that reveal who they are?

Do these dilemmas create opportunities for the protagonist’s character arc and growth?

Reader Engagement

Does the protagonist’s journey hook the reader with immediate stakes, urgency, or relatability?

Are the protagonist’s goals and complex motivations compelling enough to make readers invest in their success or failure?

Does the beginning leave enough mystery and room for discovery to intrigue the reader?

Tips for Using the Checklist:

Again, don’t try to include every element in your protagonist’s character. Instead, pick the ones that best align with your story’s tone, genre, and theme.

Revisit this checklist during editing to ensure the protagonist remains consistent and engaging from the first page to the last.

Use this as a living document to refine your protagonist as your story develops.

Using this checklist, your protagonist will be compelling, dynamic, and memorable—hooking readers from the very beginning and keeping them invested until the end.