Tips on your character's hopes and dreams
Everyone has goals, don’t they? Everyone has goals, hopes, dreams and things that they wish to achieve. Same goes for your characters. So give some for your characters! Having hopes and dreams for your character give them something to live for, and their life would probably be more meaningful. It would give them a target to achieve, and by having goals, you could probably work out for plot lines for your character.
Below are a few tips for coming up with and writing about your character’s hopes and dreams:
Identify the character’s personality. Think about how your character is like as a person. Is the character violent? Or is the character shy and sweet? How they approach their goals would obviously be based on their personality.
Consider the character’s past. What is the character’s childhood like? Was there any important events? Perhaps a family member passed away. Or maybe they won a competition. Or if there were no important events, think about how their childhood as a whole was like. Things that happen in the character’s past might affect what they want to do in their future, as well as their priorities.
Think about the character’s family, friends and/or enemies. The people around your character make huge impact on your character’s life. For example, is the character’s family supportive? Or don’t they care about what your character wants in life? Also, are there people who are trying to stop your character from reaching their goals?
Brainstorm! List some possible hopes and dreams, and rank them from most important to least important. Although your character’s goals should all be important, you also need to consider the character’s priorities. Which is on top of their list?
Break huge goals into smaller goals. Just like in real life, achieving huge goals is difficult. Make sure to break down the huge goals into smaller ones, so that they would be easier for your character to achieve.
Give them challenges. Not every goal is super easy to achieve, and realistically, there would always be challenges and obstacles. Create obstacles that your character has to overcome. Add in some problems that they’d have to solve before they could reach their goal.
Reward your character. A lot of people respond to rewards. Assuming that your character is a normal person, then the character would probably also love rewards. It doesn’t matter if your character is reckless and wild or reserved and quiet, almost everyone enjoy rewards all the same. Once your character reaches a goal, give them something to motivate them to move on.
Think about what will happen after the character reaches their goal. Would that be the end of the story? Or will there be another goal? Will the character get a huge treat in the end? Anything is possible, and you should discuss about what will happen next.