Figuring out what your characters want and why they want it is one of the easiest ways to unlock the story in your script. A simple way to approach this is through figuring out your protagonist's external goal and their internal goal as you create their character bio.

What is an External Goal?

The external goal is the what your character is trying to accomplish in your story. You can think of this in some ways as a plot goal, because it’s often what the plot of the movie or TV show is about. The goal itself will vary greatly depending on what kind of script you’re writing. The external goal could be to defeat the villain, get a date to the prom, find the killer, survive the monster, make a friend, keep from getting evicted, rob the casino, avenge your loved one, or a million other things.

The external goal isn’t always obvious, and it might not be something so easily defined. Not all stories are about incredibly driven characters, and not all movies are plot-driven. But even in those cases, you should think about what your character wants. If they’re a slacker, it might be that they want for things to not change, but that’s still a goal.

There are several benefits to giving your character an external goal. For one, it keeps your character active and helps drive your story forward because they’re pursuing something. When you’re stuck you can ask yourself “What does my protagonist want?” and “What do they have to do at this point to achieve that goal?” This will help you figure out what happens next in the story.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of giving your character an external goal is that it helps you create conflict. To create conflict you just need to put obstacles between the character and achieving their goal. These obstacles can take the form of other characters who are preventing the protagonist from achieving their goal, aspects of the protagonist’s world like bureaucracy or geography, or even psychological factors like the protagonist’s fears and anxieties.

Whatever the obstacles are, you want the conflict they create because conflicts are where stories come from.

What is an Internal Goal?

While the external goal provides the thrust of your story, the depth comes from the internal goal. This is the reason why the protagonist is pursuing their external goal. (The why behind the what.) Some writers refer to this as the “hole in the soul.” The internal goal is the emotional core of your story. It’s the protagonist’s underlying need, and there is a good chance they aren’t even aware of it at the start of the story.

For example, let’s say your protagonist is trying to climb a mountain. The external goal is obvious, to climb the mountain. But why do they want to climb the mountain? Are they trying to prove something to themselves?

It’s important to keep these internal goals at a human level. Let’s say your character is trying to stop the world from ending. Again, that’s a pretty clear external goal. And in the internal goal is pretty obvious as well. Why do they want to save the world? To keep billions of people from dying! It seems like that should be enough, right? But it’s very abstract. The audience needs something emotional to relate to. One way to do this would be to give your protagonist a strained relationship with their child. By saving the world, and maybe even sacrificing themself in the process, they can redeem themself and prove the love they struggled to show previously. See how that feels much more interesting?

The internal goal forces your character to reckon with their actions at a much deeper, more personal level.

Conclusion

By figuring out your protagonist's character external and internal goals you're setting yourself up for an easier time figuring out your story and writing your script. Arc Studio can help you through this process with it's built-in notes app, advanced outlining tools, and industry-standard script formatting.