Throughout my time writing I've found that depending on the kind of story being told determines what kind of characters are needed.

If you're writing a coming of age story about a young teen becoming a more mature adult or at the very least a true leader. If you're writing a romance story for a relatively older audience, mid to late 20s and such, likely your character is going to be one who learns to be strong and resilient when battling heartbreak or goes on a journey of healing and self discovery with their true soul mate, who faces equally challenging self-actualizing growth.

Knowing your story is just as important as knowing your characters. As well as knowing your tone and theme to match too. It can also help to subvert certain story plots that get done so often all the time.

For example: I'm currently reading a lot of Reincarnated Villianess Manhwas. The general tropes are that a girl, specifically from Korea, is transmigrated into the body of a Villainess in a famous novel and she's fated to meet an imminent, shamefully and [admittedly] well deserved demise at the hands of the guy that ends up falling for her in the active retelling, when she vows to change the narrative, to save her skin.

These stories generally follow the typical scene tropes: the tea party, the debutante/royal ball, reverse poisoning, verbal face slaps, dress shopping, etc.

These moments are usually given their own spin. However, the formula does tend to get old. I personally am more partial the the Villainess being thrown back in time and given a second chance at life. Usually these stories are revenge plots, where the protagonist is pretty much still a villainess, she's just a more clever one than the immature, insecure brat she was before. These stories interest me more because the character growth of the villainess feels more genuine. Instead of a foreign soul taking over her body and assuming the "new" protagonist role, the thrown-back-in-time villainess is unabashedly true to her character and taking back her power, while undoing the people who wronged her one by one.

I personally enjoy it more when her life changes and gets better as she rewrites her past and begins making better choices for herself. In fact I feel like this particular genre of the Reincarnated Villianess trope is targeted for more mature audiences than the typical transmigrational ones.

These characters' stories subvert what is usually seen in Transmigration stories. The verbal face slaps are more personal or leave worst impressions of the offenders, sometimes they're more strategically subtle. There is just such a different tone compared to the transmigrated protagonists.

Transmigrated protags are usually girls who originally had crappy or uneventful existances in their past life. They're goal is either to live peacefully, avoid execution or somehow return to their old world.

This is an interesting take on the types of characters that match the narrative and theme their story. The goals and plot make sense the more we understand the character and their motivations. It's a powerful and important part of any form of storytelling.

I myself am struggling with this particular issue. I enjoy writing my characters and giving them their back stories and personalities but I struggle to give them a drive, a motivation, a purpose.

I find that a good remedy for this is taking what you know about their back story and building their motivations around that.

With Lara she had a little brother but something happened to him, something she can't remember. She has nightmares and visions about the creature that potentially killed him and the connection it has to a mysterious sheep-lady. She seems to suffer from repressed memories of a traumatic event and now she just wants answers to what she can't remember.

Her motivations can vary. Since this story is an supernatural action story with a twinge of drama, she could want to seek out the mysterious sheep lady for answers and/or revenge or try looking for her long lost brother hoping he's still alive.

Heck maybe all of the above. The problem in some cases of storytelling is making sure the narrative flows well and makes sense to the plot and more importantly the character's development.

Writing sometimes feels like trying to jump over various walls in your head until you come across one you just can't get over. So you have to think and plan, trying to figure out all the ways to go over, under or around it until you finally get that flow going again. Guess that's why they call it writer's block.

The next time you're stuck at that impenetrable wall just take your time to get around it. Play with some ideas by writing them out or even make up some visual senarios with comics or memes.

It wouldn't hurt to try. Not to mention there's inspiration all around you! The only limit to the imagination is you. So never let that cup run empty.

Happy writing and Keeping flowing.