How do I make the audience care about a character who has no goal?

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

NO motivation? How long before they starve to death? LOL
They must have some motivation. Perhaps as simple as getting out of their present de-motivating situation?

[JoshRaed]

Well the character is trying not to get caught by his former captors/abusers, the Arcanum, who are chasing him across the world, but aside from that he has no real end goal he’s trying to accomplish.

[BoomerZ]

A character without motivation is just window dressing. Why would you write that, why would I read that, and why would the audience care. People as a general rule don't care about people without motivation.

[NickRowler]

Your character’s goal doesn’t have to be anything too extreme. If your character finds it stressful to constantly avoid his captors, a motivation could be making the people hunting him down to stop. Or finding a safe place to be where he is no longer on the run. Or finding someone he trusts to help with some emotional/psychological healing.

[JoshRaed]

I think him trying to get to the dark zone without being kidnapped by the witch is a goal. Is it enough? It’s pretty passive as a goal and he doesn’t have to do much to accomplish it, but it’s something, and he is a side character to the actually important protagonist.

[ShidoDraws]

You could make them have a mysterious (and/or complicated) past.

I find this is my favorite type of character to write since it's a challenge to get the motivation to them. The only downfall with this kind of character is they may not seem like they are moving the plot along. So in order for this character to be likable whilst unmotivated, you need characters who wants to be around this character. Do they have a charm about themselves? Do they accidentually help people? Are they someone's love interest? Or perhaps they have amnesia. There's a lot you could do, really.

Edit: I was just suggesting, didn't read the rest of the thread prior to writing this. Either way, I hope it helps, even just a little.

[moontokkym]

The only time I've seen a character with litterally no motivation be compelling was a story where the entire thing was a character study in depression, which was a "nice" experience in that when you read it and you or someone you know has experienced it in real life, it makes you feel less alone.

What you seem to be describing is a passive MC, an MC where the plot is what pulls them into action and they react to it rather than their actions being the catalyst for most events. Though they're less popular now, especially in fantasy, you can find many protagonists on the passive side of the spectrum in old sci-fi, like Winston in 1984 who is passive most of the book, or Monday in Farenheit 451 until the mid-point turn. Usually this is actually a way of showing how oppressive the society in which the character lives is and how much they'll tolerate before growing as a character and taking action when they're pushed too far.

You can also play with your character being reluctant. Tension can come from the fact that your character actively does not want to be doing the plot things, and how their attitude can change over time as they get personally invested in something that slowly changes their mind.

However if you intend for your character to stay completely neutral to the plot, even imposing it artificially, that will stunt readers and character growth if there's not something else for the character to care about. A good writer will find a way to get an otherwise non engaged character tangled in the plot over time, and it's normal for all characters working towards the same goal to have slightly or vastly different motivations.

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

That kinda sounds like self-preservation which can be a powerful motivation.

[KevinReijnders]

Neon Genesis Evangelion

[Todoyama]

Naaah cuz like actually I didn't know what the ending would be when watching the show, everything was just vague

[smokesalty]

It's kind of impossible for a character not to have a goal or motivation. You say he's only doing what he does because of a rule- surely there's a reason he follows this rule? Even if the character wants to just exist, that's a goal. You should be throwing hurdles at your character in order to have them act towards their goal, whether their goal is for things to stay the same or change.

Now, a passive character is a different thing. They may have a goal, but things in the plot just happen to them instead of them doing things that affect the plot. For example, a character wants to go home after being lost, and are passive in the sense that they just run into things in the plot. Like they walk around and the say, evil scheme unfolds as they just kinda wonder around and they're thrown into fighting because they're told to. A non passive character in this situation might go looking for a particular person, strike a deal, and decide to take on the evil scheme to save their home, fighting to keep their loved ones alive.

Like honestly there's nothing wrong with a passive character if it's done right and serves the story. I've said before that the main character of my comic is extremely passive, that is, until about the halfway point where he begins to act. My character is in a cult where his goal is just to stay there and have nothing change. He's dragged around by the plot and other characters because it makes sense for his character- he's a kid that seeks guidance from other people. His character arc is him learning that being complacent and letting these things happen to him is not what he wants, which changes his motivation in the comic from staying to trying to escape. People like him as a character because I've shown how his abusive home life has led to him accepting any love he can get. And also- having other characters that are significantly less passive helps here as well.

Again, it depends on the story. But usually I'd say it's good to have a character taking action, because what they choose to do and what lengths they would go to achieve their goals can inform a lot about them as a character. Seeing why they want this is important to.

[Rai_Muffin]

Gintama is a story where the characters have no real goal, but it's still a great story because the characters are entertaining.
There's situational goals, like a bad guy shows up and they need to deal with them, but the protagonist, Gintoki, just wants to live a peaceful life.
It's not until really late that a long term motivation comes along that destroys their everyday lives and forces them to fight to reclaim it, but by then the audience is invested enough to see that peaceful life return.

Maybe give them an interesting past that you reveal over the course of the story?

Maybe focus less on an overarching goal (I will be Hokage, King of the Pirates etc), and more short term motivations and stories?

[gabriellabalagna]

Off the top of my head, I'd say making them witty/sarcastic/entertaining is a great way to make a character likeable. Other thing is making them morally good/self-sacrifice/kind.

Would be more compelling if they had an actual goal/motivation though. Maybe you can change the story going forward?

[NickRowler]

If it’s a side character, then they don’t need an extreme goal. In a lot of stories, their goals are just something that branches off the MC’s goal or they just want to be supportive of the MC.

Think of the Wizard of Oz. Scarecrow wanted a brain so he went with Dorothy to see the wizard. However, the Scarecrow did do clever things throughout the story which meant that getting to the Wizard really wasn’t that important as a goal to him personally. However, he saw that it was important to Dorothy. Same with the Tin Man and the Lion, they were there to be supportive.

[IndigoShirtProd]

The thing with Nobody as a character is that it takes awhile before his motivation is developed and in the in between times, he's doing a lot of things that aren't endearing as a character. The things he says, the way he says them, and when he says them makes him comes off as more annoying rather than funny.

The issue your coming across is that his personality, which supposed to be nonchalant and uncaring, really clashes with a character driven story. Okay, that's fine he can be passive and reactive, but then that clashes with the decisions he actively makes: no one is passively a prick; that's a choice. He flip flops from being passive and active which makes makes his character inconsistent.

The interesting thing is that he has a lot going for him if it was just relayed meaningfully. He's escaping capture from witches, but he joins a very high profile character on their journey with no other than because it's a thing he can do. That's an active choice, it wasn’t as though he was dragged along (at least in the draft I remember).

His personality is also supposed to clashes with the other main character, but it does so in a disingenuous way. He'll push back here but not there with any reason as why. So, you know

[JoshRaed]

Well the main reason they clash is that heiroe expects him to feel the weight and responsibility of being the chosen one but that’s something he hates more than anything, so he harbors some resentment for that. I don’t see them clash for that many other reasons. Every time they argue it’s over this subject in some way.

[IndigoShirtProd]

There's nothing wrong with them clashing over that. It makes sense. What I mean when I say disingenuous is that it comes off as forced rather than a natural chaffing of personalities. They get into a whole scuffle 3 or 4 chapters in when there was no lead up; no escalation. It makes the reader wonder why they're fight in the first place, especially right after Nobody helps save Heiroe's sister life.

[Leyelle]

What do you mean by a rule of world-building forces him too? As in the story makes it necessary that he play this role, or that something actually in his world is forcing him to do this?

Example: In my novel "Damsel in the Red Dress" I need characters to work for The Veggera Foundation so my MC has someone to talk to, but obviously no one IN the story is forcing them to do it. In this case, it's easy enough to make someone just do something because it's their job whether they like it or not, and you can make your audience care about the character by detailing their emotional reactions to what they are doing. Whether they want to do the task or not, they are likely to feel SOMETHING about being in the position, even if they don't care about the task (perhaps, saving the world, if that's what your character has to do) and the way they feel about saving the world is likely to change as it progresses, for instance, he may learn something that makes him angry, and decide to take the job seriously, or find someone he cares about saving and know that's only possible if he stop the threat at hand. Apathy is a surprisingly painful state to live in and there are a lot of ways you can utilize this idea in your character to make your readers care for them. It's extremely central to my MC Alicia that she's numb and unmotivated, and this makes her miserable, perhaps you can play into WHY exactly your character cares about nothing.

[DiegoPalacios]

Even unmotivated characters have a goal, no matter how small. It could something like "just wanna be left alone" or maybe they want to avoid changing their life if they are in a comfortable position. Also, the search for a purpose and self discovery can be a purpose in itself.

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

Since the topic title has changed from 'motivation' to 'goal'... You can certainly try to make the reader care for the character because of their past or present.