Lesson overview
Introduction
Story - Narrative
Middle years and up
character goals
character motivation
story logic
emotion behaviour loop
- Goals and motivations are the engine of any narrative—they propel the characters into action. In this lesson we rewrite snippets from a variety of middle years and young adult texts to explore the difference between wants and goals, how goals fit into the emotion-behaviour loop, what happens when goals are in opposition, and how asking why can lead you to the bedrock emotional need fuelling a character's goal. We conclude with a checkpoint piece in which students write a variation on a snippet from I Am Malala, about a character who wants something, takes action, and then responds to opposition.