Conscious Goal, Unconscious Goal

A deeper examination of a character’s Want and Need.

In one of my recent Screenwriting Master Class courses on character development, a class member posted this:

I understand the ‘want’ (external goal) element. What is more tricky for me is the ‘need’.

I’m unsure in determining it.

In Die Hard, the external goal of McClane is at the beginning to settle things with his wife. Afterward, to save his wife and the other hostages from the terrorists. But what is his need? To take responsibility for his marital situation? To admit he acted like a jerk? to rejoin his wife?

And why actually does Annie in Bridesmaids need to renounce her romantic childish wants? Because this is the story determination?

Since the Protagonist is not conscious of his needs, who determines it for him? is it me, the screenwriter? and according to what? according to the story?

I’m a bit confused here. Hope I succeeded in explaining my thoughts.

My response:

Before trying to explain things a bit more, let me begin with anecdote. Among the twelve Black List workshops for which I have been a mentor, one was in New York City and featured Beau Willimon (House of Cards) as another mentor. With each writer, he did the same thing in their hour-long session. He took them for a walk in Greenwich Village and simply asked the same question of their story’s Protagonist: “What do they need?” And he kept pushing and pushing that point, forcing the writers to dig deeper and deeper into the Protagonist, down to their core Need.

That demonstrates how important this question is.

As you suggest, the Protagonist often doesn’t know what they need (Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Carl in Up). Indeed, sometimes they don’t believe they need anything (Michael in Tootsie, he WANTS a job as an actor, but I don’t believe he thinks he NEEDS to change). Or they believe what they want is what they need (Annie in Bridesmaids, Zuckerberg in The Social Network).

As you suggest, it’s really more about the writer recognizing the Protagonist’s Disunity — and Want and Need are almost always distinct at the beginning of the story, thus part of the character’s…