Trying to come up with a motivation for a character

Okay, so I have this story which focuses on a cursed girl's quest to find the cure to her curse. Her main characteristics so far is paranoia, deeeeep distrust in other people, stubbornness and at times a certain curiosity over the world.

The curse in question causes normally peaceful (although scary to other people) monsters to follow her and attack her. In the end, she doesn't get rid of the curse, but her first actual friend finds a way to help her fight them, and it's heavily implied that anyone could join and help them if they want to, making the threat much smaller.

The problem is that the other main character is really 2-dimensional. So far, I know that I want him to introduce the concept of a cure to the cursed girl, which will "start" the plot. Right now though I have no actual reason for him to tag along. What's in it for him? As a friend it would be understandable, but they don't know each other to begin with.

I thought about having him be sent by a town to get rid of her since the townsfolk thinks the monsters mean bad luck, but if possible I hope to avoid the Liar Revealed plotline, since there will be plenty of angst as it is, and also because if my main character found out that the ONE person she trusted lied she would probably turn into a puddle or something, I dunno.

I think that I can work out a personality based on the motivation in question. Help, internet?

I was literally going to make a thread for figuring out motivation for a character of mine. But I'll help you out first. Here's a few:

• Perhaps he's a kind person at heart. Maybe he just wants to help people.
• Maybe he wants to get stronger. Having someone who draws monsters toward him will help him train and hone his skills in battle.
• Perhaps he knew someone with the same curse who died because of it, and he wants to get rid of his guilt by helping her release hers.
• Maybe he wants to learn more about the monsters.
• He wants excitement in life.

edited 25th Feb '16 2:57:02 PM by electronic-tragedy

Maybe he has a crush on the girl?

For the girl, it feels like you've just slapped a bunch of personality traits together without actually thinking about who she is as a person,or what in her life brought her to the state she's in at the beginning of the story. I mean, she's paranoid and distrustful of people, but also curious about things? That doesn't make sense. It suggests a character who'd be far too afraid of... well, everything, to be willing to sate her curiosity. She sees something new, and doesn't know what it is? Well, she's paranoid, so she avoids the new thing out of fear. And where does the stubbornness come into it? Does that mean that no amount of cajoling will convince her that the new thing isn't a threat?

Do you see where I'm going with this? What happened in this girl's life before the events of the story to make her the way she is? Has she been abused by people before, hence her distrust of others? Has she been repeatedly shafted by the ineffable whims of the universe, hence her paranoia? Where does her stubbornness come from? Why is she so set on not changing her mind or her behaviour? Did her being indecisive have negative consequences at some point? Is her ego too tied up in being "right" for her to admit fault or ignorance?

More to the point: how does any of this fit into her being cursed to be attacked by monsters all the time? Did she bring that on herself? Did she anger a wizard or something? So she's paranoid, distrusting of strangers and stubborn - why hasn't she locked herself away in a house somewhere, safe from all the world? That seems like the only logical end-point for this character as-written. Well, either that, or her curse forcing her to push past her fears, and reach out to others for help. Is that supposed to be her arc over the course of the story? To learn to trust again?

(Also, "being constantly attacked by monsters" seems like a curse that would quickly resolve itself, especially if the victim was a weak little girl. How long has this girl been cursed, and how is she still alive?)

But to answer your actual question... well, I can't do that, because by your description of your main character, I can't see any reason for her to stick with him. Why does she trust his promise of a cure, when you've established that she's paranoid and distrustful of people? Character is shown through action - if you say a character exhibits a certain quality, but then have them act totally contrary to that quality, then they're not the person you said they were, are they?

And I bring this up because honestly, "he wants to help her" is literally the only motive the guy needs. You could stand to probe that a bit, asking why he wants to help her, but the bigger issue is why any of this matters. What are these characters' arcs? How do they change as people over the course of the story? Where are they at the beginning, and where are they at the end? What is your story trying to say? Is the curse, the mindset of the victim, and its eventual resolution meant to be a metaphor for something? Is it meant to echo the stages of grief or the onset of depression, or the mental weight of one's past mistakes?

Because believe me, there's nothing more tiresome than a story that's literally just "a bunch of stuff happened, the end." with no larger statement to make (even if that statement's just "there's no inherent meaning in life, why should there be in art?" which is a totally valid statement)

...I thought I was going somewhere with this, but I guess not. Hopefully this rant has helped you, somehow.

Hey, thanks for the help! Again, this is just a rough start. I will be polishing it along the way.

She is distrustful of people because her curse have made people fear her before, and constantly on guard because these monsters can appear at any time. She is stubborn because she would have died a long time ago if she wasn't, or well, she doesn't easily give up atleast. Curiousity may seem out of place, but she doesn't necessarily act upon it anymore. The other traits are partly learned behaviours.

Trust me, btw, this is just the bare bones of it, I've really just started working on it. I'll develop the characters more as well, but right now I need to work out a sketch of the plot.

On my phone, which might explain the short answer

Might write a longer answer later, but yes, the curse is a metaphore for depression. I'm writing in swedish, so sorry about spelling here.