When you are writing, you often wonder whether or not you are leading your character in the right direction.
You ask, “is this actually what they will do?” The better you understand your character’s objective in life, the better you can pick the logical paths for them to go down.
The 6 human needs were first introduced to me by Tony Robbins from his book Money: Master the Game. In the book, he discusses the motivation for money, and that often times, people don’t even know why they want more money. They want to be millionaires and billionaires but have no real idea about what their dream life cost.
I gave myself an exercise; I asked myself what is something seemingly unachievable (due to finance) that I want to experience in my lifetime. The one that popped into my head was being able to live in a hotel for a year. So I did a bit of math and shared it on my Instagram account.
But back to the point, the better we are at understanding what motivates our characters whether consciously like wanting to live in a hotel forever or subconsciously like feeling safe from danger, the better we will be at making choices for them and writing a believable storyline.
6 Human Needs:
- Certainty: safety, security, stability, comfort, consistency
- Uncertainty or variety – surprises, challenge, excitement, adventure, difference, novelty
- Significance – to feel special, pride, wanted, needed, important
- Love and connection – approval, attachment, intimacy from another human, part of a community
- Growth – constant emotional, intellectual, spiritual development
- Contribution – the need to give, nurture, protect, and serve others
Some of your characters might attribute multiple human needs. They might be very needy. Others might be more focused. Nevertheless, whenever a character is making a choice, regardless of where they are in the storyline, odds are they are driven by one of these human needs.
What do you think? What is your most prominent human need?
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Elliot Chan 