In 1998, Sprite ran a commercial of three basketball players playing hard on the court, and after the montage of shots, the camera cuts to the three men standing there, prepared to give the tagline of the commercial. When they do, the director yells cut because one of the actors is holding the Sprite can upside down. This leads to the actors switching diction and talking about their pedigrees as actors, but the final line by a guy standing off to the side is what made the commercial hilarious and memorable: “Excuse me. What’s my motivation?” That line has stuck in my head for years, especially when it comes to writing characters into scenes.
Writers are oftentimes aware of the need for their characters to have motivations, but they are also equally, if not more so, aware of the need for something to happen in the plot. So, while they start with the best of intentions, as the Scottish poet
