Character Need - Screenwriting

Character Need is just another way of saying Motivation.

Writers fail to blow their readers out of the water when they fail to develop the characters need.

How to develop the character's need?

While going after the characters want....

You must keep asking, "why they want this goal?"

Once you get through the first draft, go back and think about why they want the goal.

What patterns of behavior do you see that conflict, that create obstacles for the character?

What character is missing from their life?  What character is infringing on their life?

What do other characters want from your character?

Just like the audience, writers go into the story blindly.  Our goal is to find the need, the motivation, the selfish desire the "character want" will give them.

The motivation will be specific just like the character want.

The character doesn't want money.  He wants the money in that vault.
He doesn't need a big house full of women.  He needs that whore house with those women who remind him of his sisters.

Remember "Need" revolves around character relationships.  Motivation is the glue that bonds characters.

"Want" is the external person place or thing they think will give them their selfish need.

You start with the Want and end at the Need.

Writing is simply finding motivation.  Finding the need.

Be Hannibal Lector.

Hannibal wanted to find Clarice Starlings Need.  He wanted to find her motivation.

Once he found it he told her how to get what she wanted, Buffalo Bill.