Motivation: Don’t Start Your Story Without It
I’ve started revisions and I’ve found that I dislike them as much as I thought I would. Something about going over something you thought you was finished and finding that it is “less finished” than you thought it was is, well, irritating.
I knew there would be a lot of things that I would want to adjust after I got back into it. There were a few scenes I knew I wanted to cut or rewrite, but I wasn’t expecting to find no motivation for my heroine for the first half of my book.
I could have sworn I added that in there.
I guess that’s because I know what her motivation is, what her inner conflict is. But, here’s that whole difficult thing about writing: just because I know doesn’t mean my reader will know unless I tell them.
So, I’m in the process of including the motivation behind my heroine’s conflict. Apparently a person can write a full length novel without that in there.
*sigh*
I must admit that I truly thought it was there. All of the parts from her POV are tainted with my perception of her motivation. I just never stated it outright. And I admit that she always felt off because of that, even to me as I was writing her.
It would have been easier had I done this in the beginning.
In my defense, I started writing this story with just an idea of plot, thinking I could carry it forward and it would all work itself out. Now I wish I would have paused to rethink that strategy.
So my darling fellow wenches (and our dashing rogue – Q that’s you, my dear)… In an attempt to help you all avoid this massive mistake, what are your character’s motivations? I see the lot of you trying to avoid me. Seriously, this is for our own good, I swear. For those readers among us, what are your favorite storyline motivations?
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39 comments:
Marnee! We are channeling one another today in the 'editing' blog! LOL
My first book was full of so many mistakes. I rewrote it four times and it's still full of mistakes! Everything from motivation, conflict and character goals.
My husband teases me, saying, if you want to get that book right, you're gonna have to 'burn' it and start from scratch, without seeing the words you already have there:) He's so positive, eh? LOL But it is the truth.
It would be easier to fix probs in the beginning, but you are learning too much on the first book to worry about it. At least that is the case for me, and every other writer that has books under the bed!
I haven't yet recovered from Sin fluttering her eyelashes last night (demonstrating customer service)...but this coffee might get me sober!
I like an element of mystery in a romance, particularly surrounding the heroine. Something from her past that produces that hauntingly seductive, far away look. Ideally the dashing roguish hero and me as reader will be motivated by the desire to understand it.
Fascinating blog Marnee....wish there was more time!
Hmm...in Mistress by Midnight, the heroine wants the past to stay buried and the hero had a huge shiny silver shovel.
In Mistress by Mistake, the heroine wants to escape from the man who's tied her heart and body up in knots. The hero wants to escape the woman who's tied his heart and body in knots...too bad he doesn't mean the heroine.
Tiff- It certainly was a learning experience!! I think I'm also going to learn a lot from revising it too, whether anything happens with it or not. :) Good luck with your revisions as well!!
Q - if you like mystery, well, my heroine's for you. I didn't even know what she was thinking. LOL!!
Maggie - Those sound great! I can't wait to read these books!! :)
I have no idea if my heroine's motivation is coming through, but I don't figure there's any way to avoid that. She does have motivation though - recently acquired. She wants to be successful at her job to ensure her own financial security. Her father left when she was a child and she and her mother had it rough financially. So she never wants to have to depend on anyone.
Then there's the reluctance to let anyone get close enough to walk away (again) and hurt her which leads again to not wanting to depend on anyone. She basically locks men out. Which means rough seas ahead when she has to work with the hero in order to get ahead in her job.
Now, if I can get all that on paper, I'll be in business. LOL! Great blog, Marn. And you'll get it all cleaned up. It's called a rough draft for a reason! Every writer goes through this exact same thing.
Ter - that sounds great. I'm sure you'll get it down on paper soon. It sounds like the makings of a great story!
In The Long Way Home the heroine wants a safe, ordinary life. All her choices are made to protect that life. The hero wants the life he lost when the heroine left him. Those ideas are what I had before I actually wrote the first sentence of my mss. Then the character interviews that some of us keep referring to made me conscious of how GMC had to be a part of every move my characters made.
I too am revising, and I am finding that pruning and pacing are the two things requiring most of my attention. The first because, as even my blog posts confirm, verbosity my besetting sin as a writer; the latter because it's not something I gave a great deal of thought to until I began revising.:(
Great topic Marnee! I think the phrase I use most often with my CP is "Well, in my head, what happened was....."
I'm afraid I have the opposite motivational problem - I just might be beating people over the head with the characters motivations. The heroine wants to save her job - to the point of making some very bad choices in her selfish quest to further her career. My hero's motivation is simple - figure out who tried to kill him, and stop them from succeeding.
I'm at the same "I hate revisions" stage, Marnee. I'm trying to re-write the first two chapters, and the whole time, I'm thinking, "but I already did this!" We'll both get there (at least, that's what I keep telling myself!)
Watch out Q. Those eyelashes of mine are dangerous. Like Wet Paint signs on the street and uneven concrete.
Sadie's motivation is very simple in the first book- stay alive, stay out of prison and find out who is stalking her.
Cin's motivation is to kill her cousin and resume her rightful place on the throne. Of course, this won't happen for a while, so in the beginning her motivation will be to find out why she's possessing a human in the human world and why she has no memory.
I love mystery with my romance (wow, I might be channelling Q today. I think we need to stand at least 5 feet apart or something bad might happen.) I like to read anything that has something I need to solve.
Great blog Marn!
Great blog, Marnee.
I think my heroine's motivation is safety. She didn't have a real emotionally safe upbringing and now she's craving it. I was going to say unconditional love but I don't know if that's a motivation or if that is just something everyone wants. You've got me thinking, Marnee!
Arrr, I can't believe I missed Angie Fox! :-(
Great blog, Marn!
Q- I love what you said about mystery in a romance and the heroine. I'm going to remember that.
In Flame Rising, Red wants to put the war behind her but she can't do that until her sister's killer is dead.
In Walks Alone, Jeanne is a widow with a young daughter to raise, trying to make ends meet.
In Love Never Dies, her father's death uncovers a mysterious legacy that Levana must fulfill.
In Chastity's Debt, Chastity must win back the deed to her ranch.
In Pirate By Night, Constance must enter a forced marriage in order to save her family's reputation.
Let's see if I can do this. Yet. Even with my book written and in revision stage.
GOGU:
Livie: Goal: AVOID Ben Tucker Motive: 1) Best friend loathes him and she pinky swore she'd stay clear; friends mean more than men, esp men who can't be trusted; 2) Ben can't be trusted because his actions usually come off differently than his words. Conflict: She's fallen in love with Ben Tucker...and he won't stop chasing her anyway. He's wearing her down.
Ben: Goal: WIN Livie Foster Motive: Love at first sight (hey, they just said I can't have love as a motive for the HEROINE, not the guy) Conflict: Livie doesn't believe in love at first sight, or him...or much of anything. Converting an atheist is hard work.
In the Beginning Again
Adam: Goal: Get his wife out of the mansion so she'll stop burning his golf clubs and being a witch Motive: He doesn't like her...and eternity is a long time to have to spend time with someone Conflict: Now he has to find a new wife
Eve: Goal: Get Adam out of the mansion (what does he need with a kitchen aid--the ungrateful git) Motive: She loathes him...and if there had been anyone else in that garden to pick after they got tossed out, she would have been gone, baby, gone. Conflict: Now *she* has to find a new husband--and despite thousands and thousands of years of evolution, modern men aren't that different than Adam. (So do you stick with the devil you know or the one you don't?)
Lucifer: Goal: GET LAID. REPEATEDLY. Motive: Because he hasn't got to yet. Conflict: LACK OF OPPORTUNITY
::looks shify:: uh...um.... I'll figure that out? Ok, ok! Yes, the motivations of my characters are murky right now but I'm still figuring out where I want this thing to go. I think Helene wants to live up to what she thinks her father wanted and she's finding closure on that. There's also the motivation of finding out how her father died. Ther hero? Not completely sure. There are a few competing motivations and I think I need to clarify which one is primary.
What about you, Marn. What is Cory's motivation in the first half of the book and do you the motivations set for your second one? Don't think you get out of answering your own questions. LOL!
Kathy - are you trying to show us all up?! LOL!
*LOL* Leave it to Terri to turn it back on Marn. *LOL* You meanie!
Kathy gets an extra mug of rum. If only on the hope that if we get her tipsy enough, she'll stop outpirating us... *winks*
Pirate. 8)
Hal - I seriously just looked away from my MS file and went "I can't even do this right now." Right now I wished I had beaten the reader of the head with her motivation, it's annoying to mess with this. Good luck hon, I'm right there with you....
Janga - I am on the other end of the spectrum; I sometimes leave everything off. Good luck with your revising too!!
Irish - Safety is a great motivation. And I'm glad I got you thinking. :)
Sin - mystery huh? Me too. I love solving stuff when I read as well. Though I doubt I was supposed to be figuring out what my character's motivation was while I was writing. sheesh. And I love Cin/Libby's story. So cool.
Great blog, Marnee! But...motivation? Aargh! It took me six months of writing the first draft to get a GMC for all of my characters. Finally, I forced myself to write them down on paper, where I couldn't change them whenever I felt like it mid-scene. (Though, you know, I could always just throw that paper away...)
So, in Into The Woods things are simple: Eza wants to be a normal teenager and keep her new friends from finding out about her Gift. Whereas, Oliver wants to stop whoever is framing him for the rash of robberies at their school...which, of course, means he needs Eza to use her Gift. ;)
Kathy - I love all your conflicts. And I love the pirate one. :) Though you definitely are showing us up today. *passes her more rum*
Hellion - Speaking of showing us up, you've got the whole GMC going on here. I think these both sound great. I love the premise of Adam and Eve's story. I really think that's going to be a romp. And WHEN are you getting to Lucy's story again? He sounds like Devil Gone Wild.
Steph - You sound like me when I was writing HBG. Cory has a billion motivations but now that I'm reading back over, it's like she's being pulled too many directions. I decided to focus on the biggest as her internal and leave the rest as external.
Well, I'm blogging about my problem with Adam & Eve tomorrow--so you'll see how long Lucy's got to wait. (Devil Gone Wild--very apt!) I'm going to be off ship...so I hope everyone, who can participate, participates tomorrow. I need the help.
:-D Seriously, I didn't mean to start anything.
Pirate.
Oh, btw, yesterday I worked out while watching Johnny Depp in *Pirates* on the big screen at my gym. It was lovely. And now I never watch that movie without thinking of everyone on RWR. You see, you've infiltrated my workout life! :)
You're welcome, Stephanie! *LOL* And I am totally JEALOUS! I know they're not showing Pirates at our gym tonight. I think it'll either be Batman or Munich. *makes face*
Hehehe...I kept lingering in the electronics department in Wally World last night because they were playing "Pirate" on one of the flat screens. I didn't want to stop and look like a dork so I kept circling. LOL! I don't think kiddo has seen the third one. I do believe we need to try it out on our new TV. LOL!
*slinks away before people notice she didn't mention a gym or working out*
We'll give you a pass on the gym thing since you were CIRCLING it, so that implies you were walking. That would count.
Oh, and I was pushing a buggie. Double points. LOL!
Well, only if the buggie was loaded down...otherwise, it's more like a walker...and it's kinda cheating. *LOL*
Damn, I was so close. But I'm guessing the Zac Ephron sleeping bag probably didn't weigh all that much. LOL!
You want to hear my character's motivations? *Marnee tries to dodge behind a keg of rum, gets caught, and slumps back to the deck, rubbing her toe in the ground.*
Fine, fine....
Cory - internal motivation - childhood friend abandons their engagement to marry a woman he falls in love with while away during the Napoleonic war.
Cory - external conflicts - 1) needs to keep Julian, her guardian, safe from his wife's murderer, 2) she needs to find a husband who will let her take care of her orphanage full of witches
Julian - internal conflict - he is dealing with the bitterness from his past marriage
Julian - external conflicts 1) clearing his name of the guilt for his wife's murder, 2) trying not to get dead by his wife's killer
Oh Zac! I'm too old for him but he's still so cute. :) And uh, a sleeping bag counts... plus it was in a cart/buggy so that double counts!
Marn - there you go. And I had no idea Cory was engaged once before. Is one of her motivations to keep others from finding out she (and her friends) are witches?
Steph - Zac is a present for Kiddo's birthday. She LOVES him. Though the Jonas Brothers seem to be gaining ground quickly. Lucky for me, she also loves Richard Armitage and James McAvoy. I mean, she IS my child. LOL!
Um, I have no motivation for my characters...I'm here at the beginning again and, um, well...
Ok, I'm going to give this a shot anyway(don't laugh!)
Lydia: She wants to marry her sweetheart Dominic Westmoreland, help her best friend ruin(ok, not ruin. But not improve either) her errant brothers life, and avoid her new feelings for Stephen Carlyle.
Stephen: He wants Lydia. But he's going to avoid her because she's his best friend's sister. Also, he knows she loves Dominic and if that's what makes her happy he wants that for her. Hmmm, I guess also he wants to do a good job keeping his eight brothers and one sister in line. He's all they've got. And he always wants to follow the rules-he's very strict about rules.
Ok, that wasn't so terrible after all. But I'm going to have to get more specific about all of this soon.
Great blog, Marn!
And, Ter, you're daughter has FANTASTIC taste!
Kelly - that sounds like a good start to me. And thanks. Kiddo and I are both looking forward to the second season of Robin Hood on DVD. Anyone know when that's coming out?
Kel - that sounds great!! I think you've got a great start. :)
Oh, and Ter, she was informally engaged, and not until this past week.
Sigh.
Terrio, I guess there's something wrong with me. I'd stop my buggy and watch the movie without caring who's watching. LOL. And I like to say, any movement brings you one step closer to your goal. :-D
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