Desire

The Driving Force of All Successful Screenplays

by Michael Hauge

In past articles, I’ve covered everything
from Structure and Adaptation to
pitching and marketing your script. This
time I want to cover something much
more basic – something that always
sounds simple, but which is one of the
most difficult principles for most new
screenwriters to truly understand and
apply to their stories. For my entire
career as a screenwriting instructor,
author and consultant, I have held a
single guiding principle: the essential
component of all successful
movies is the hero’s pursuit of
a compelling desire.
In this column I want to examine this
principle more closely, and discuss the
specific elements that define what I
refer to in my lectures and my book
Writing Screenplays That Sell as outer
motivation.
pursue, your story will have no forward
movement, your audience will have
nothing to root for, and your reader
will have no compelling reason to keep
turning the pages of your script.
It is this necessary desire that defines
your story concept. Ask someone
what INDEPENDENCE DAY is about,
and they’ll probably say something like,
“It’s about a group of people trying
to stop an alien invasion.” Or read the
log lines for movies and TV episodes in
TV Guide. Almost all of them state or
imply the primary desires the heroes
will pursue.
Certain qualities distinguish an
effective outer motivation and insure
its potential for creating an emotional
experience:

Your primary goal as a screenwriter

must be to elicit emotion in the reader
and the audience. Whatever else
you hope to achieve with your script
– money, fame, artistry, a celebration
of humanity or an enlightened,
empowered audience – you will do
so only when you keep the movie or
TV audience emotionally involved with
your story. And you will only be given
the opportunity to reach an audience
if the people in power are emotionally
involved as they read your screenplay.

This necessary emotional involvement

is realized only when the audience
experiences the events of your story
through your characters. Without giving
your hero some compelling desire to
1. The desire must be visible.
I use the term OUTER MOTIVATION
because it is outwardly apparent to
the audience as they watch the action
on the screen. Whether it’s stopping
Mr. Smith and saving the world in
The Matrix Revolutions, reuniting with
his high school dream girl in There’s
Something About Mary, or Finding
Nemo in that film, the heroes of those
films are doing things to achieve their
desires, not simply revealing themselves
through dialogue.
In other words, outer motivation does
not involve the desire for invisible, inner
qualities like success, love, belonging,
greed, revenge or self-worth. Any one
of these might provide a reason your
hero is pursuing her visible goal, but it’s
not the goal itself.
In the movie In The Line Of Fire, Frank
Horrigan wants desperately to make
up for a moment of cowardice and
hesitation early in his career. But this
need doesn’t give the story a plot, it
only justifies the real outer motivation:
to stop the assassin from killing the
current President.
Desire by Michael Hauge
2. The desire must have a 3. Your hero must desperately
clearly implied endpoint. Not want the desire. If your main
only do we see the hero pursue the character is only mildly interested in
goal throughout the movie, we can achieving their outer motivation, how
easily envision what achieving the goal can you expect the audience to care
will look like. We know when we watch whether they win it or not? It’s your
Con Air that we will ultimately see a hero’s burning passion that will draw
showdown between the hero and the readers into your screenplay, and will
villain. We may not know all the details, make the outcome of vital importance
or exactly where and how it will occur, to them as well.
but we know that the outcome will
resolve the story.
4. Your hero must actively
pursue the desire. Your characters
When you write a screenplay, you are
can’t simply sit around talking about
taking the reader on a journey. But this
how much they’d like to have money,
isn’t one of those trips where you jump
success or the love of a beautiful
in the car and say, “Let’s just go for a
woman. They must take control of their
drive and see where we end up.” In a
movie, you are subconsciously telling lives and use every ounce of strength,
the audience, “I’m taking you to this courage and intelligence they have to
specific destination. I won’t tell you all rob the bank, stop the serial killer or
the roadblocks we’ll encounter, or all win the love of the prom queen.
the sights you’ll see along the way, but
I promise that when the movie is over, Nor can your hero simply observe
you’ll be here.” other characters pursue a goal, or
allow others to pursue them without
Think of your movie as a race. Your reacting. By definition, the hero is the
hero is trying desperately to reach the character whose desire defines the plot
finish line before some other character of the movie.
or force of nature can stop her. If you
don’t tell audience where the finish line Passive heroes destroy interest and
is, how will they know what to root for? emotion. How can we root for
How will they even know when the someone who takes no action? Your
movie’s over? (Yes, I know the credits protagonist can be passive at the
will come on, but how exciting is that?) beginning of your script, but before
too long, he has to declare, “I WANT
This is another way that outer THAT!” and go after his desire.
motivation is distinguished from some
inner desire for self-worth – what I
term INNER MOTIVATION. It’s fine
if your hero wants acceptance, for
example, but how will the audience
know he’s achieved it unless you
link that acceptance to some visible
outer motivation we can anticipate? In
Amadeus, a jealous Salieri wants to get
revenge (invisible) on God for making
Mozart a musical genius. This instills in
him a visible desire to destroy Mozart.
It is murdering Mozart that drives the
story forward, gives it a clearly defined
endpoint, and keeps the audience
emotionally involved.
5. It must be within your
hero’s power to achieve her
desire. You never want your hero
to wait to be rescued, in any sense of
the word. If she’s pursued by a killer,
trapped in a mineshaft, or cornered by
dinosaurs, she can’t wait helplessly for
the Mounties to arrive.
This is why very few successful movies
are about elections, beauty pageants
or the Pillsbury Bake-Off: the outcome
of such situations is determined by
voters or judges, not by the one
pursuing the prize. (Yeah, yeah, I know,
Miss Congeniality was about a beauty
pageant. But what was her Outer
Motivation? To stop the killer – not to
be picked as the winner.)
The exception to this principle is the
courtroom drama, where a judge or
jury ultimately decides whether the
hero wins or loses. But notice that
in most successful legal dramas, such
as A Few Good Men, Class Action or
Runaway Jury, the verdict is preceded
by a scene where the hero confronts
an antagonistic witness, reveals key
evidence, or makes an impassioned
plea that transforms the outcome into
a foregone conclusion.
6. Your hero must put 7. Your hero’s desire must
everything on the line to be resolved at the climax of
achieve the desire. Again, the the film. You may add ambiguous
more passionate, determined and elements to your story, and even leave
courageous your hero is in pursuit of your hero with an uncertain future.
his quest, the greater the audience’s But you must resolve both the Outer
own emotional involvement, and the and Inner Motivations by the end of
greater their elation when he succeeds. the film. Your reader and audience have
spent two hours rooting for your hero
This principle is fairly evident in action to achieve these compelling desires.
movies and thrillers like Terminator You can’t now leave them hanging
3, X Men 2 or Panic Room, where and expect your script to either
heroes put their lives on the line to advance your career or transform your
save the world, stop the bad guys audience.
or escape from danger. But it’s also
true in any successful love story or  
comedy. The Robin Williams character
in The Birdcage risks embarrassment,
humiliation, self-esteem, the loss of  
his lover and the loss of his own son’s  
love and happiness in his attempt to  
convince his future in-laws that he’s a  
straight man.  
 
And in romantic comedies and love
stories like Sleepless In Seattle, Good
Will Hunting and As Good As It Gets,
the heroes must take the greatest
emotional risk of all: exposing
themselves to rejection, fear and pain
as they let go of identities that have
brought them a lifetime of protection.
But they find the courage to put
everything on the line as they pursue
their love and their destiny.

Michael Hauge is a featured speaker and producer of the best-selling DVD series, “The Hero’s 2 Journeys.”  He
is also the author of “Writing Screenplays that Sell” and “Selling Your Story in 60 Seconds”.  Michael is a featured
speaker at filmmaking and screenwriting schools and seminars.  He consults frequently with some of Hollywood’s
most successful writers and directors.  You can find Michael at www.screenplaymastery.com.