Characters and plot are inextricably linked. You can’t REALLY have one without the other. They take up the same space. If a story has no characters, then nothing happens and there’s no actual story. If a story has no plot, then again nothing moves, nothing happens. No story.

The link goes even deeper than “things need to happen and there need to be people to do those things.” How you characterize the people in your story, will affect the plot, and in turn, the plot will affect the people in your story. This is because the main characters in a story require two fundamental things: Wants and Needs.

Want

What your main character wants is the most fundamental piece of creating a story. A character’s want is what propels stories forward. Why should a hero leave the comfort of their regular life if they don’t want anything? This fundamental piece of your character is the origin of the plot.

In the 2008 movie Iron Man, Tony Stark wants to atone for his sins as an arms dealer. That want propels the rest of the movie as he becomes Iron Man to help reduce the damage his company has done.

This relationship between want and plot is exemplified in this quote from Aaron Sorkin’s Masterclass.

Obstacle

We have established a want, but something stands in their way. Now the character must decide what to do in the face of resistance. It’s these moments in a story where character is revealed the most. The choices we make here will precipitate the other aspects of their character like personality and backstory.

Imagine I’m writing Iron Man. I start with the fundamental want: Tony wants to fix the problems he’s caused. Now I have to decide how Tony responds to this. What stands in his way? The people who use his weapons, so I say he funnels his money into becoming a superhero. We have a plot to match our character’s want.

Now I can think about what that says about him. What are some character traits that align with that response?

Tony could be confident, rich, potentially egotistical, helpful, powerful, there are tons of different traits I could choose from. Obviously he is rich because he has to pay for the suit. He is confident in his ability to accomplish his task, but he is also confident to the point of being egotistical.

We can take these traits and turn them into concrete character detail. Tony is a playboy who likes to drink and hang around beautiful women. He is obsessed with expensive cars. He’s rude, but also kind of charming. All of these details are fundamentally driven by how the character chooses to respond to their want.

Need

Tony’s want isn’t just about helping others though. It’s about making himself feel better. It is about how he is coming to terms with his guilt, and that’s his fundamental flaw. His ego stands in the way of really helping people and atoning for his sins. The opposition between Tony’s flaw and his want is our next fundamental aspect of character: Need.

Tony needs to transcend his ego to get what he wants. This is an issue we will see play out in just about every movie with Iron Man in it, but we see it’s beginnings here.

The character’s need isn’t as concrete as their want. They often aren’t aware of their need, or are choosing to ignore it in Tony’s case. We watch Tony struggle with terrorists, the US Government, and his own company as he tries to fulfill his want, but what he needs is to be humbled. He needs to lose his ego.

We can see this need fulfilled in the last fight of the movie where Iron Man must fight Obadiah who wants to weaponize arc reactor technology, a direct obstacle to what Tony wants. On the brink of losing the fight and therefore his want, Tony decides to make the ultimate sacrifice. He tells Pepper to crank up the arc reactor to take Obadiah out. This will also kill Tony. In this moment, his need is realized. He has shed his ego for the greater good.

That’s the theme of the story. Overcoming ego to help people. That’s the theme of Tony Stark’s entire character. The main character’s need is the theme of the story. It’s what the story is trying to say and is the emotional tether that connects us to the characters. Tony Stark isn’t the only one who has had to overcome his ego, that’s a universal struggle the audience can connect to.

Want and need are the two most important parts of a character. A character’s want defines the plot. How they respond to obstacles is what defines their characteristics, and their characteristics will define what they truly need.

These are the fundamental pieces to making a character that pulls in an audience and informs them about the human condition.

TL;DR: Character’s start with a want. How they react to something in the way of that want will decide their characteristics, and one of those characteristics will become their fundamental flaw.

If you have any questions or comments, join the discussion on our Discord! Next time we’ll be going into the specifics of finding character detail. Be sure to sign up for our newsletter below to stay in the loop on the blog and Campfire news.