What is Pulling Your Character?

Okay, I’ll do you one better, what pulls us. What pulls on the human race. What makes us do the things we do? It’s a philosophical question but it’s an important one for writers to understand so we can write well written characters. So, once again I’m going back to ancient times, because they knew what was up, no one can deny that. Plato discussed this in Phaedrus with his chariot allegory of the soul.

Plato talks, like most ancient philosophers, about people and the facets of man but one sticks out and it’s my personal favorite because it’s fun to think of the chariot that resided in us. The chariot that is the soul, or as people say The Tripartite Soul.

The Three parts of the soul: ogistikon, thymoeides, epithymetikon

I like to include the Greek because even though I can’t say it, a visual recognition is always good. But even though it’s Greek to me, the words mean: Reason, Spirit, Appetite. The charioteer is the voice of reason guiding the spirit, which is the white horse that is pulling you toward virtue and appetite, which is the black horse pulling you towards vice.

If you’re not much of a planner and more of a fly off the seat of your pants writer understanding the three facets of your character can help you write more realistic characters because they’re being pulled by the same factors we are.