Writing Strong Characters - The Important Distinction Between Want and Need

“The story isn’t about whether he wins or loses, it’s about something much greater”

rocky is a great movie lol

Loved it

I would say Manchester By The Sea has a want but the need of the film is a much more important part of the film. The want is that Casey Afflecks character (I don’t know his name) doesn’t want to take care of his brothers kid, he really wants to escape his painful past.

Elijah is brilliant at showing the emotional complexity of his characters. Shia, not so much.

So right off the bat you make a statement that makes no sense, and after that the video becomes hard to follow. Wants are external and needs are internal? Since when? I can think of a million examples where that's not the case, and even your examples don't work. Maybe you have a point somewhere but it's pretty poorly explained, sorry.

Thanks!

How can I write a story where the trying to find a want is the want?

Rocky DID win in the end

This video help me realize my own story and the main character. Its going to be fire 🔥

Gonna have to watch this a few times, good stuff

THEY ALL SUCK!!!!

Manchester by the sea is one of important films.. The absence of want and driven by the interior emotion is the essence of the film. It's not strong but a very struggling impactful charcater.

What an important video - Very well-researched and highly informative.

What about the wants and needs changing as the story goes along?

I have to disagree with you. Most of the Wants you mentioned are already good, selfless, mature desires - saving Middle Earth or defeating the robots. A proper Want isn’t just a desire, but a fundamentally flawed desire. It has to be negative, or at least suboptimal compared to the Need.

Frodo doesn’t have a clear Want and Need. You could maybe say his Want is to “Bear the burden alone,” but I don’t feel this was strongly developed. If you’re looking at LOTR characters, the better example is Aragorn, who Wants anonymity but Needs to become the king.

A Want should be fueled by a foundational lie the character believes. Woody believes only the favorite toy matters. The truth is that all toys matter and together create a full, imaginative life for a kid. Embracing that truth helps him obtain his Need and find fulfillment.

Wants get in the way. Needs let us become our better selves.

more accurate is to say want is conscious, need is subconscious, not fully realised

Awesome.❤️🔥

I’m no expert but clearly wants and needs can be both external and internal.

Manchester by the Sea
Yeah I stopped when you criticised that.

wow watch it with another perspective and it is also a philosophical lecture that I can apply to my own life...

God, I love Rockie.

Manchester by the Sea did not need a want. or want a need? I love that movie.

Would a villain be someone who ends up solving their wants, but not their needs? Let's say Woody would be a villain. He fulfills his wants by successfully getting rid of Buzz and has no witnesses to shun him (even though in the real movie, there were witnesses). But he doesn't fulfill his need to share being Andy's favorite and he doesn't learn or realize it. We understand his motivations, wants, and needs, but he just doesn't solve his needs.

Many thanks. This is so helpful 👍.

So Anne Boonchuy from Amphibia WANT’s to find answers of the music box so she can go home but NEED’s to get used to a world of frogs that alienate her but slowly accepts her

I love this video! Thank you so much for this it’s really helpful.

Want is what the character wants
Need is what the character must do to get what they want
Lie is that the character doesn't need what they need to get what they want
Ghost is why they believe the lie

Wanting to have isn't the same as needing to feel

Me during 90% of the video (having to rewatch it probably) 12+15.....=........27:D

this actually helped alot thx

You say that wants are usually external and they are blocked by external obstacles but what if a character wants to get the girl (external) but the reason they can't get her is because they are too shy (internal)?

what if the need is satisfied and then ripped away from the protagonist?

Thanks for this. I'm writing a novel and that part about transformers really spoke to what I've been doing wrong

It's so exciting to realize ways you could implement these things into your plot. By coincidence, I've already laid down a fitting scenario for wants and needs. My main character's want is to overthrow a tyranny in order to help the common folk (which in itself will be very ambiguous), and he needs to realize that he's someone special who has the ability to do so with the help of others who put trust in him.

I cant stand rocky. All that violence

Good advice and very helpful! However, I‘d like to add my two cents into here as well in case someone may benefit from me sharing my own experience with learning to write characters as well. So really I think what many ppl forget is that you‘ll always be part of your characters so you should embrace that. In my experience, the best written characters were always those who were genuinely a mix of a fictional character and the writer themselves wich feels most genuine to me. For example, I like writing emotionally broken characters who learn to overcome their trauma because that is my own experience and so i feel like my portrayal of that can go pretty deep cause I‘ve been there.

I feel like we always have to feel our characters feelings as we write them but what made me bring out the most was whenever that character felt like i did or have felt in the past. And I do think that this is important because you don‘t have to lose yourself and exclude yourself in your own writing. The best works I‘ve ever seen or read were those that came from such genuine real feelings and they touched my soul deeply. And if you wanna give that to the world put that into your character. Use it as an alter ego to tell a story that resonates with you. What you‘ve been through, what you‘ve dealt with and what you felt. Because that‘s what will guide you best. You can read tons of articles on how to write this type of character or that type of character; but you‘ll never have to do that much work if you put your own soul into your characters because you already have yourself inside of you. And so use that and don‘t be shy about it. Ppl shame self inserts but they also don‘t know that everyone inserts themselves into their characters to some extent. You only have your
Own human experience and you‘ll only ever experience your own life so don‘t try to write about a stranger. Be yourself. Be genuine, be passionate and be honest. Because you deserve to be part of that character and also deserve to be seen in your art and writing. You‘re not just the artist. You are also the art itself.

great video! very helpful. Thank you❤❤❤

Can we please stop using LOTR and Matrix movie as strong characters?

I'm struggling..

This vid was played in my class

Toby: sometime/ we need to give up what we really want to do the right thing.

Im working on a concept of a novel right now, but its hard to find the details that gets the main character to each main point in the story, any tips?

How about...

I want to die
But I need to live

I agree with many other comments. Thank you for this insight. I hadn't thought of quite like this.

Manchester by the Sea has a very clear want. Lee wants to get out of Manchester, but his nephew gets in the way as all his life is there.

Is interesting how you made so many points so clear in a single video. Presenting all those movies does help. I have seen all of this scattered all around and having everything together is great. Also that chart about wants and jeeds does help a lot.

Thank you

Movie has promising components.