Reader Question: How would you define “inner motivation” and “outer motivation”

From my email:

Subject: inner motivation / outer motivation

Message: brief definition please.

A short email requiring a long answer.

Inner motivation. Outer motivation. This sounds like the jargon of a screenwriting ‘guru’. Let me try to put a human face on these concepts.

You are a person. You have a conscious aspect to your being, that is you are aware of things and do a good bit of mental activity actively involved with your thoughts, impressions, memories, and so forth.

In that conscious realm, you make determinations from time to time, large and small, to aim to accomplish things. Goals, if you will. You know what those goals are and you are intentional in attempting to reach them.

Let’s call this your outer motivation. Or what some call your Want.

But that’s not the entirety of who you are. You also have an unconscious part of your psyche more tethered to your feelings, emotions, passions, etc.

In this unconscious realm, there are dynamics at work which you may struggle to control, impulses and instincts, desires and fears.

Underneath this cacophony of energetic push-and-pulls, there lies something uniquely authentic to who you are, whether you know it or not. Your True Self. Authentic Nature. Core Essence. Whatever you call it, it’s there. To date, unrealized. Maybe you suppress it. Perhaps you ignore it. It’s altogether possible you’re not even aware of it.

But it’s there. What Ovid calls the “seeds of change”. Joseph Campbell named it your “bliss”.

Your instinct to tap into your Core Essence and “become who you are” as per Carl Jung is what we can refer to as your inner motivation. Or what some call your Need.

Not to be too simplistic about it, but in terms of screenwriting, we have something like this:

The story’s Plotline is primarily the domain of the Protagonist’s Want, their outer motivation, their conscious goal.

The story’s Themeline is primarily the domain of the Protagonist’s Need, their inner motivation, their unconscious goal.

This Outer Motivation / Want exhibits itself in the story universe’s External World, what in a movie we can see and hear — Action and Dialogue.

This Inner Motivation / Need exhibits itself in the story universe’s Internal World, what in a movie we can intuit and interpret — Intention and Subtext.

So in movie terms:

• In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy’s outer motivation is to get away from her unsatisfying home life by going ‘somewhere over the rainbow’ and her inner motivation is to realize her home in Kansas really is her home.
• In Casablanca, Rick’s outer motivation is to run away with Ilsa with whom he has reconnected and his inner motivation is to reject his cynicism and embrace his idealism, thereby sacrificing his love for Ilsa for the greater good.
• In The Apartment, Baxter’s outer motivation is to land a promotion and succeed in business, while his inner motivation is get in touch with his mensch nature and quit his job.
• In The Silence of the Lambs, Clarice’s outer motivation is to save kidnap victim Catherine Martin and her inner motivation is to kill Buffalo Bill and thereby silence the crying of the lambs in her nightmares.
• In Juno, Juno’s outer motivation is to have her baby and give it up for adoption while her inner motivation is to stop avoiding her youth and embrace innocence before bolting to adulthood.

We have wants. We have needs. Every single one of us. As writers, we can use this fact to explore the outer and inner lives of our characters, particularly our Protagonists as they inform story structure and provide access points for a script reader to connect with the character’s journey.

Thoughts anyone? What do you think about outer motivation and inner motivation? Head to comments and let’s see what you’ve got.