The Tony Robbins Writing Hack: 4 Questions for Better Character Motivation

Tony Robbins, the life coach behind Unleash the Power Within and focal point of the Netflix special "I Am Not Your Guru," shares personal development advice and breakthroughs to change the lives of thousands (if not millions).

It's hard not to know who Tony is if you follow the personal development space, because he was one of the first breakout coaches. My mom even gave me an old workbook of his from when he went by Anthony Robbins! I've recently realized that the series of questions he asks his students, was also relevant to my life as an author. More specifically, his technique is helpful to identify lapses in character motivation and backstory.

In this post I'll be sharing what those questions are and how his approach can completely shift your character's mindsets and the way they react to the events around them.

"Identify your problems, but give your power and energy to solutions." Tony Robbins

Many of the concerns Tony identifies have to do with family relationships and what we learn at a young age is acceptable and worthy of reward.

The Tony Robbins Writing Hack

Answer these questions for your fictional characters:

1. Whose love did you crave more, your mother or your father? (Not the same as asking who do you love more)

2. Who did you have to be to receive that love?

3. Who couldn't you be to earn that love?

4. Who taught you that [Insert belief/character trait]?

These four questions not only help your personal identity (thinking about this was a game-changer for me) but also that of your fictional characters.

If your character is falling flat, it may be that you don't know the answers to these questions and WHY they do the things they do.

For example: Many characters that set out to overachieve do so to please their family and those expectations (question 2), OR they are doing it so they can become the opposite of them (something they learned while trying to rebel against how their family currently behaves, question 4).

Dig Deeper: How does the origin of their character trait influence how they engage in the novel? If they heal the way that experience makes them feel, does it change the way their trait impacts the plot?

These questions provide a valuable tool to understand your character motivations.

Amplify How Your Character Interacts with Your Fantasy World, a Free Character and World Development Worksheet

If you want a free tool to uncover the inner-workings of your world and characters and how these questions can develop the way your main character and side characters interact with the world, you can download the Happy Story Bible for free or add a pay-what-you-want tip for the download.

These are the exact worksheets I used for my flagship fantasy series, nearly 30 pages of content to help you to:

• Map your character's motivations, fears, and emotional arcs using the same charts from my original Character Mindset Planner (see comparison note below).

• Build your world's geography, politics, and magic system with dedicated brainstorming pages for each.

• Keep every invented name, location, and timeline detail in one place, so you're never scrolling back through old chapters to remember what you called that mountain range.

• Plan visually with Venn diagrams, timelines, and webbing maps for connecting characters and events.

Updated in 2026 to be fillable, rather than only printable to fill out by hand. Do what works best for your planning needs.

Free Story Development Worksheets

Note: If you already have my free resource, the Character Mindset Planner, that is the character-only template. The Happy Story Bible includes most of the same character work, plus an entire second half for building your world: maps, politics, magic systems, timelines, and a dictionary for all those invented names you'll definitely forget by chapter twelve. If you are a contemporary writer, get the CMP instead, if you are a fantasy, paranormal, or sci-fi author, download the Happy Story Bible here instead.

I hope you enjoyed this content, a personal development thought process that also works well for amping up your character motivations and how that interacts with your fictional world! More fiction tips to come.

Remember you are unstoppable,

Rebecca