What is a Character Profile?
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Goals, Motivations and StakesGoals, Motivations and Stakes
You’ve chosen your Protagonist Ancestor, and now it’s time to structure his or her story in a format that will keep your readers entertained and engaged from beginning to end.
Every main character in a story has a goal that is ultimately the heart of the story. A reader stays with a story to see if the main character reach their goal. Your ancestor’s goal is motivated by something in their life, usually in their history, an experience, or event that may of had a substantial impact on them and their actions. In addition, if they didn’t achieve their goal, they fear a loss. It could be an external loss such as in a material item, money or land, or even the loss of life, or it could be internal losses, such as respect or honour.
Before you begin to write your story, it’s important to recognize the goals, motivations and stakes of your ancestor. They are critical to not only understanding them but also in shaping their story.
I love these next three questions because by answering them you not only identify your ancestor’s goals, motivations and stakes but you understand how they relate to each other.
GOAL – WHAT DOES YOUR ANCESTOR WANT?
MOTIVATION – WHY DOES YOUR ANCESTOR WANT IT?
STAKES – WHAT HAPPENS IF YOUR ANCESTOR FAILS TO GET WHAT HE WANTS? WHAT WILL HAPPEN? WHAT COULD HAPPEN IF YOUR ANCESTOR HAD FAILS TO MEET HIS GOAL?
Let’s look at each of these elements individually.
Goal – There are any number of material and or emotional desires we seek; these are our goals. Your family history story needs a goal, which means your Protagonist Ancestor needs a goal. Where do I find the goal of my ancestor? Look at the actions in their lives. Look at the events on their timeline, did they emigrate, why? Did they own a great deal of land, did they fight in a war, did they become famous, or influential in politics, did they have a large family? Our ancestor’s actions are clues to what they valued in life, their goals, the wants or desires that they put most of their effort towards.
Does your ancestor want something so badly that they are prepared to destroy or be destroyed to attain this goal? To make sacrifices? To take risks? Did they join the army because they believe in the cause? Did leave the country because they didn’t support the cause?
Of course, not all goals are created equally, the bigger the goal, the bigger the story, the bigger the story, the more compelling the read. Try to find a goal that you feel will provide a big story that will engage your family. Stop thinking of your family history as a chronological timeline of events, but rather a desire, a want, with obstacles to overcome on the path to it.
Motivations – Once you’ve determined the purpose of your story, the next step is to understand their motivation. Why did your ancestor have this particular goal? Each and every human being who walked this earth had wants, desires that were driven by a motivation. Through your research, you wish to understand what that motivation may be. For example, if your ancestor’s goal was to own land, what in their history, their past motivated that desire? Look at motivation as the back story to the want.
Stakes – What happens if your ancestor does not fulfill his goal? The stakes are why we keep reading, if there is nothing at stake, no risk then there is little reason to keep turning the page. Of course, not all stories are life-or-death. Again big stakes produce significant stories. While the risks may not necessarily be life or death, our ancestors faced some very real stakes. For example – war, poverty, deportation, inscription, jail, poorhouses are only a few of the outcomes that may have occurred if they had not taken actions towards their goals.
Identify the goals, motivations and stakes of your ancestor and you have identified the heart of their story, along with the elements on which to shape your family history story plot.
Identifying Your Protagonist AncestorIdentifying Your Protagonist Ancestor
The protagonist is the central character in a story. I’m going to assume you’ve watched enough movies and read enough books, that you understand every story has a protagonist. However, did you realize even your family history story should have a protagonist.
Your reader needs a focal character. Someone through whose eyes the story is revealed. Your reader needs someone to either approve or disapprove of and without a main ancestor as your reader’s emotional guide they will have no feeling for the story either way. Your family will begin to connect to your story when they identify with an ancestor, a protagonist in the story.
Here’s a few things you should look for when determining your protagonist ancestor.
Action
Your primary ancestor’s life needs to demonstrate action in his or her life. You need to be able to see that they acted upon the world and not merely reacted to the world. The events in their life are the action they will bring to the story. By action, I don’t mean an ancestor who was hyper and ran around in circles. Action is choice. You want the protagonist in your family history story to be an ancestor who made decisions in their life. The bigger the choice, the more significant the story, and the larger the story, the more compelling the read. Tell your family history story from the perspective of the ancestor that made the biggest choice.
Conflict/Fear
Look for the conflict in your ancestor’s life. That could be an outer conflict or an inner conflict or perhaps both. If that fear or conflict is something that your readers will identify with then, you probably have chosen a good protagonist.
Plot
Your principal ancestor must be crucial to the story’s plot. If you can write a story without them or a mere mention of them than they are not your protagonist ancestor. Their actions and choices should move the family history forward.
Relatable
Your readers should empathize with your ancestor. They should be real people, with real dreams and real problems. You want your main character at the very least to be somewhat likable. They should want to know them, maybe even become their heroes.
Flaws
A good protagonist should have a few flaws. Don’t shy away from choosing an ancestor with visible defects. It is in these blemishes that your reader relates to their ancestor.
Change
Storytelling is change. In your story, change occurs either because the protagonist changes, the world changes or the protagonist changes the world. But something must change. In your research, it’s important to identify the change both outer and inner change that your protagonist goes through.
If you would like to know more about identifying a protagonist in your family history story, we discuss this in great detail in Authentic Ancestors, Bringing Your Ancestor to Life through Characterization.
