NEFARIOUS VS SPONTANEOUS

Laurie Schnebly Campbell's first novel was nominated by Romantic Times as the year's "Best First Series Romance," and her second beat out Nora Roberts for "Best Special Edition of the Year." After six books for Special Edition, she turned her attention to writing non-fiction -- using her research into the nine personality types to help writers create plausible, likable people with realistic flaws. Her other favorite activities include playing with her husband and son, recording for the blind, counseling at a mental health center, traveling to Sedona (the Arizona red-rock town named for her great-grandmother, Sedona Schnebly) and working with other writers. "People ask how I find time to do all that," Laurie says, "and I tell them it's easy. I never clean my house!"

Everybody here will be able to sympathize with such a situation, because pesky characters strike EVERY writer! And somebody who comments today will win help for all their future characters, with free registration to my “Plotting Via Motivation” class (at WriterUniv.com) next month. 

The winner will be announced on Novel Rocket's Facebook page tomorrow. Be sure to like our page! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Novel-Rocket/129877663761335?ref=hl

NEFARIOUS VS SPONTANEOUS 

Plotting evil schemes. Being irresponsible. Where’s the middle ground?   

We all know the risks of being TOO much of a plotter, or TOO much of a pantser. Writers who spend all their time drafting outlines can miss the joy of creative inspiration, and writers who spend all their time freewheeling can miss the joy of finishing a cohesive book.

But of course, nobody is all one or the other. Sometimes we think “I wish I were better at following wherever the muse leads me” or “I wish I were better at coming up with a credible plot,” but finding the middle ground can be tough. 

That’s where motivation comes in. Not our own motivation for writing, but our characters’ motivation for doing whatever they do. 

You already know that, no matter what kind of plot you're building, it's gotta be motivated by your characters in order to feel plausible. It doesn't matter whether you're doing an emotional plot or an action plot or both -- what makes it work is the characters. 

So what IS it that makes your characters do what they do? Or another way of asking that is, what makes anybody do what they do?

There are all kinds of theories of motivation, and they all boil down to the same thing.

We want to be Okay.

Whatever it takes to be okay, that's what motivates us.

Maslow talked about that, saying that to be Okay we first need Food and Water...yep, okay...Shelter...got it...then Safety...and in most books, those issues are pretty well taken care of. Sometimes you'll get characters fleeing the murderer in the North Woods or laid off from the factory job, but food isn't usually a driving motivation. 

So we get into the next level of what people need to be Okay, which is Belonging / Acceptance / Love. Then there's Respect of Others and Self-Respect, and finally there's the drive to Be All You Can Be. Everywhere along that continuum, you've got some great motivators. 

And that matters, because it's the motivation that makes a character interesting. 

Some writers start with the motivation: "let's see, a woman who's motivated by the desire for adventure would be THIS type of person." Other writers start with the character: "my heroine wants to sail to Jamaica, so that must mean she's motivated by adventure." 

Either way works fine. And either way leaves you totally free to write any kind of story you want. 

Say, given this heroine who wants to sail to Jamaica in search of adventure, could your story be full of soul-deep emotion? Absolutely. Dizzying suspense? Yep. Heartwarming faith? Yep. Quirky humor? Yep. Spine-tingling terror? Yep.

It all depends on how you write it.

So in that case, why does the heroine's motivation even matter?

Because it's what makes her credible. Same as we can't have pink-elephant aliens showing up in some 14th-century castle without sacrificing a bit of credibility, neither can we have this woman sailing off to Jamaica without SOME plausible motivation.

And that's where it's easy for us authors to fall down on the job. We love this heroine who's rigging out her sailboat, we love that she's going to Jamaica, and we know that on the way she'll meet this incredibly witty sailor, there'll be a pirate attack -- oh, and the pirate ship will have a yellow parrot named Sidney! -- it's all taking shape. We KNOW it'll work, because we can SEE this story. 

But it's that dazzling clarity which can get us into trouble. Because our readers weren't IN on this first glorious flash of inspiration. They can't see that wonderful vision. All they see is a heroine rigging out her sailboat for a trip to Jamaica, and they have no idea why she's doing it.

Unless the readers GET her desire for adventure, they're gonna feel out of the loop. They might not know why the story isn't working for them, but they're missing her motivation. 

And motivation is what makes a book memorable.

For some writers, it comes so naturally that they never even question how their characters’ motivation will feed into the plot. (Which sometimes leaves them at loose ends, wondering what on earth can HAPPEN during their plot.) 

For others, it’s more of a tack-on because their strength is in plotting. (Which sometimes leaves them wondering how to explain WHY this character did something that seems senseless but is actually integral to the plot.) 

Either way, motivation is vital. And yet we’ve all found ourselves in trouble with motivation every now and then. So that’s my question for you:

When was the last time you found yourself dealing with a problem character? Who was this person? What did he or she do? How did you resolve the situation? 

Everybody here will be able to sympathize with such a situation, because pesky characters strike EVERY writer!

And don't forget ... somebody who comments today will win help for all their future characters, with free registration to my “Plotting Via Motivation” class (at WriterUniv.com) next month. 

The winner will be announced on Novel Rocket's Facebook page tomorrow. Be sure to like their page! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Novel-Rocket/129877663761335?ref=hl

Meanwhile, I can’t wait to see those pesky characters on parade -- because it’s always a lot more fun to read about other people’s problems than to focus on our own. <grin>

Laurie ~ who's hoping today will be slow at work so I can check email sooner than lunchtime...but don’t worry if it takes a while to hear back; I’m definitely checking in!