An effective storytelling technique is to ensure there is ever-present clarity regarding the character’s central goal and their motivation for pursuing it (an exception here is when an unclear motivation is deliberately used to foster mystery.) These elements help invest a reader in a story for two reasons:
- Knowing the central goal evokes curiosity about whether the character will succeed or fail, drawing a reader further into the story.
- If the reader understands the motivation behind the central goal, they are more likely to accept the character’s determination to confront the story’s conflict—in whatever form that may be—as credible; thus a reader can better maintain their suspension of disbelief.
Note that a reader needn’t empathise with either the goal or motivation; they just need to understand why it drives the character toward their risk-taking. With that said, if a reader does empathise, their bond with the character will be stronger. As Karl Iglesias points out in Writing for Emotional Impact:
The important thing is that motivations must be compelling and worthy of empathy. In other words, if a character robs a bank because of greed, we don’t empathize with that character. But if he robs a bank to pay for a loved one’s operation, as in Dog Day Afternoon, we identify with that character and understand his situation, even if we don’t agree with it.