Why
A want is external, conscious, and stateable by the character. "Win the case." "Get to Chicago." "Make my father say it." It generates scenes, because it can be pursued, obstructed, and measured.
A need is internal, usually unconscious, and typically the opposite of the want in some structural sense. "Stop needing to win." "Accept that he will never say it." It cannot generate scenes on its own — nobody pursues a need — but it decides what the ending means.
Films fail at this in two symmetrical ways.
Want without need: a competently plotted film that feels hollow. The character achieves the goal and the audience feels nothing, because nothing inside the character was at risk. Heist films fail here constantly.
Need without want: a character study where nothing happens. The protagonist's internal problem is legible but there is no external pursuit to dramatise it, so the film consists of people discussing their feelings in well-lit rooms.
The climax is where the two intersect. The strongest possible ending forces a choice between want and need — the character can have one, not both, and what they pick is the film's argument.
How
- Write the want in one sentence, in the character's own words, in first person, present tense. If they could not say it out loud, it is not the want.
- Write the need in one sentence, in third person, as something the character would deny. If they would agree with it, it is a second want.
- Check that the want is achievable and measurable. "Be happy" is not a want. "Get the promotion" is.
- Check that the want and the need are in tension. If pursuing the want serves the need, there is no arc — only a task.
- State the theme once, early, out of the protagonist's mouth or aimed at them, and never again. See
craft.say_it_once. - At the climax, construct the choice. Make the character give up the want to get the need, or keep the want and lose the need. Either is valid; both are endings. Achieving both is a fantasy and reads as one.
- Cost check: a strong need usually forces a sad or costly ending. If the brief requires an upbeat ending, weaken the opposition between want and need rather than pretending the choice happened.
Notes for AI film
Every character in the bible needs a want by their third scene, and the rule-based diagnostics will flag it when they do not. This is not literary bookkeeping — it changes the prompts. A character pursuing something has a physical attitude, a lean, a place their eyes go, and those details belong in the descriptor and the blocking.
For commercials, the want is the viewer's want, not the character's, and the need is what the brand claims to supply. A 60-second story spot that confuses the two produces the "why is this an ad" flatness that plagues the format.