Why we do the things we do

Patty here…

For those of you who’ve been following my posts, last week I took my 89 year-old mother on a pilgrimage to visit friends and relatives in Washington. Veni, vidi, visited (we came, we saw, we visited). The trip had its challenges but we made it home safely and my mother had a “marvelous” time.

Since returning to LA I’ve been thinking about why I took her on this journey. The simple answer is she wanted to go. However, other daughters would have said no, that she was too physically compromised for such an ambitious itinerary. The truth is I took her because my core need is to do my duty.

I first heard the term “core need” twelve years ago in a class about character development taught by Elizabeth George at Book Passage in Corte Madera. She later wrote a book on writing called Write Away in which she describes the concept:

“We all have them; single needs that are at the core of who we are. We’re born with them and during our lifetimes, we mold most of our behavior to meet our core need. This is something essential to a person, an automatic striving within him that, when denied, results in whatever constitutes his psychopathology.”

Here are some examples she gives of core needs:

Need to be competent (to be good at everything/perfectionist)
Need to do your duty
Need to belong
Need for excitement (adrenaline junkie)
Need to be authentic (genuine)
Need to be right at all costs
Need to be a big shot

Here are a few more I added to the list:

Need for privacy
Need for curiosity
Need for independence
Need for power
Need for control
Need to express oneself
Need to maintain stress (drama queen)

There are more, of course, as many as your imagination or experience can conjure up. George believes when a person’s basic need is denied, he/she becomes stressed, which manifests itself in behaviors she calls psychological maneuvering (delusions, obsessions, compulsions, addictions, denial, hysterical ailments, hypochondria, illness, behaviors harming the self, behaviors harming others, manias, and phobias).

The concept resonated with me. Now whenever I create fictional characters, I assign them a core need and a corresponding psychological maneuver in response to stress.

I’m currently working on a new book featuring a female character with a “past.” Circumstances (of her own making) have challenged her core need, the need to be competent, and she is now obsessed with perfection. She believes there is no margin of error in her decisions and she will do anything to keep her life and career on track. Anything? Methinks that will make for a few wayward choices, at least I hope so.

Do you writers out there use core need to develop characters? Better yet, what is your core need?

Happy Columbus Day!