He Did What? No! How Is That Even Possible?

 
I am incredibly sensitive to character motivation. In books. Movies. TV shows. Real life?
 
Weak, plot-driven character motivation is one of the most common reasons I abandon books (another reason is boring the crap out of me, but I’ve covered that already ).
 
I’m reading/watching/listening, I’m trying to believe in these characters, but it seems the author wants to tell a particular story. And if that means that Character A has to do something radically diferent than anything he’s done before–or has to do something incredibly stupid in spite of being demonstrably not-stupid thus far in the story–just so that particular story can be told, so be it, the author says. And so long, I say. I’m outta here.
 
If your characters won’t/can’t do what you need to tell your story, maybe you picked the wrong characters. Or the wrong story. Or maybe you can give both a minor adjustment so that the angle of the plot twist required doesn’t send them rolling off the cliff. Or throw the reader right out of the story.
 
I don’t know that I’m especially good at character motivation in my own stories, but I try to be. It’s one of the areas where I tend to put the most work.
 
Because I don’t want the story to feel forced. My stories, or the stories I read.
 
-David
 
Title Note: That’s a slightly paraphrased King Julian quote from Madagascar 2:Escape to Africa. I have a 2 year old son who *loves* the Madagascar movies.
 
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