You know, there are the classic motivations. Most of them come from Star Wars, in fact. The boy who doesn’t know his parents. The death of the only relatives a boy has ever known. A character who needs money desperately. A princess who needs to save the world.

Obviously, we relate to loss as a motivator. We relate to gain as a motivator too, although not usually in the same way (Han Solo gets painted as the bad guy when he’s obsessed with making money — the guy just wants to pay off Jabba and go on with his smuggling career.)

I’m curious about whether or not there are ways to motivate characters without loss. I’m not even sure what it would look like. Any suggestions? You know, other than “Not like star wars.”