What we want is a big part of human psychology. What we desire, what we want to achieve in life, is part of what makes us individuals. If everyone wanted to the same thing, there would be nothing interesting about meeting other people, and there would be no place for marketers (ok, so this might make the world a better place.) What we want gives a reason to get up in the morning, gives purpose and meaning to the activities we perform between when we wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night.

In fiction, asking what a character wants is the first thing that you need to find out about any character you create, even minor ones which might appear only for a page or two. There are numerous insights you can gain into a character by working out what they desire:

• Why do they want this? This gets deep into the motivation of the character, and can be used to tease out backstory and other character traits.
• What do they hope this bring to their lives? When people want something, they usually have some vision of how their lives will be better in the future when they get it. Characters need these same imagined futures as well.
• How will they go about fulfilling this desire? Two people with the same goal may find different approaches to achieving it, depending on their values, morals, standards and many other factors. How the character chooses to fulfill their desire will drive the action of the story.

Depth of character can be drawn out by giving a character multiple desires, especially if these desires clash with each other. This causes internal conflict and can add shades and personality to an otherwise 2-dimensional or stereotyped character. You get to see who a character really is, how she will juggle both desires and try to achieve both.

Most importantly, characters need to fight to achieve their desires – they need to want what they want. This is the one area where fiction needs to be depart from the real world. It will happen a lot that real people will give up on a desire at the first sign of conflict or hardship. Fictional characters cannot do this. It makes them weak, and really, what’s the point in telling their story. There is a place in fiction for weak characters, but it should never be your main characters.

Knowing what the character desires – and how he will fight to achieve his goals – you now have all the information you need to develop conflict in the story. A story where the character gets everything he wants easily is boring. If achieving a goal isn’t a challenge fraught with opposition, competition, dangers, self-doubt and any other road block to success, then it’s attainment is hollow and unsatisfying – for the reader as well as the character. Readers will have a hard time suspending their disbelief if the events conspire to fulfill a character’s desire easily – in most people’s experience, that’s not the way the world works.

Good conflict comes about when one character’s desires clash with those of another.  Maybe they have the same desire – winning a competition, finding the hidden treasure first, winning the heart of the beautiful princess, etc, etc – but only one of them can have it. Conflict can also be found where characters want different things that are at odds with each other – for instance, one partner wants to stay in the relationship, the other wants out.

If a character’s only desire is stop another character from achieving their goals, the conflict here could easily come across as fake or melodramatic. Unless you are trying to create an entirely malicious or evil character, stay clear of this approach. People aren’t usually like this, so unless you are deliberately trying to write a psycho- or sociopathic antagonist, try to give characters opposing desires, not the desire to oppose.