HELP: Motivations for going on a journey

[Phoenixx0]

Title!

In my fic I’m outlining right now, I’m struggling a little with my protagonist’s motivation. Originally he was just gonna be, like, persuaded into the “badge quest” after an argument with his parents, but that feels a little mmmm, if that makes sense?

Another idea I had is his friend wanting to be a coordinator and him just wanting to fulfill a childhood dream of being champion (however with time their plans change), but that also feels a little boring to me.

Are there any motivations that aren’t really shown a lot that would be interesting to read? I’d love to know!

 

[GastlyGibus]

First off, do you want it to be a badge quest? When we're talking about writing a story, particularly one with a long journey, most of the time there's a "need" to go on the journey, some kind of inciting incident. The main Pokémon games don't really have this, since they're video games and they're meant to be more open-ended in terms of the player's motivation. Some players want to collect 'em all, some players want to be the best trainer, the best coordinator, etc, so the games leave it rather vacant in that area.

A written story is different. You're not writing an open-ended story for different readers to take control of, you're writing about one specific individual and his or her own personal journey. You'd have to think about why somebody would embark on a long journey. Sure, it could be a simple "I want to be the best trainer/coordinator/Pokémon fashion designer" deal, but when you think about most written stories, the protagonist usually has the journey thrust upon them; something happens to force them into a journey that they otherwise wouldn't have taken. Lord of the Rings, for instance, Gandalf tells Frodo that Bilbo's ring is dangerous and that he needs to get the ring out of the Shire, which kicks off the whole adventure. Frodo now needs to go on this journey.

I would spend time thinking about what would cause the protagonist to need this journey. Maybe one of the evil teams took something from his family and he needs to get it back, or someone they care about went on a journey and disappeared and he needs to find them.

Hope this helps!

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Why does your character want to take up the league challenge and "be the best"? What constitutes being the best for your character?

If you've decided to write a badge quest, then your character must feel some kind of way about this. Maybe he was overlooked as a kid and he's always wanted to prove himself. Maybe he had a competitive relationship with a friend and it's something he's been working towards. Maybe it's a sense of obligation because of tradition, maybe it's a means to an ends because going pro means making the money he needs for himself or the family, maybe it's because he doesn't understand himself and wants to discover who he his through a challenging adventure.

The thing is, this is the core of your story. You can shop around for ideas but ultimately it has to be your call because you have to be invested in your own protagonist's motivation. His reason for existing as a character isn't a fun little extra, it's pretty much the whole point.

I hope you find a character arc you can get excited about writing, good luck!

 

[Beth Pavell]

Being the best is fine for a motivation to go and win Badges, you've just got to follow it through. The official media (i.e: the anime) never does this - characters shout a lot about how they're so psyched to win, sometimes you see them training as obsessively as you'd expect, but that's about it. In particular fanfiction almost always overlooks how the protagonist feels about being the Champion. If they really do want to be an amazing pokémon trainer (And again, just being competitive and liking pokémon battles explains this just fine), then you'd expect them to follow and obsess over current Champions.

With teenage characters you can play around with this in the story. Maybe he finds being a trainer isn't all it's cracked up to be. Maybe he realises he wants to do something else halfway through. Teenagers rarely know what they want to do with their life. Young adults often find they want different things from their life than they expected.

(Admittedly, I'm writing a journeyfic very much in this vein, where the motivations are money and defiance for each of my protagonists)

 

[Phoenixx0]

Late reply, I had to go to bed, but thank you both!!

I admit I’m not really “looking out of the box” so to speak when it comes to these fics, so I’ve strictly been thinking about Pokémon-related reasons. Reading this has definitely opened my eyes a bit! With how the story is going to turn out to be, I probably should rely on a motivation that isn’t just “haha become Champion yeet,” ya know?

And yeah, I was planning on having it be a “badge quest” at first (character being forced against his will I imagine), but the character has always felt oof about becoming Champion, and some events later on make it so that he doesn’t end up finishing the badge quest.

I will admit this is my first time ever writing a real Pokémon fanfic, so I’m not exactly the greatest at...anything, but that’s okay! Advice from cool peeps like you guys helps a bunch, so thank you!!

 

[LightningTopaz]

Both the games and the show are filled with ideas and concepts you could use--so if its been a while since you've played the games or seen the AG arc of the show, you can always raid Bulbapedia for research.