Motivation
And I'm not talking about my motivation to write and get this story finished. No, I'm more than motivated. In fact, I've had several sleepless nights because I'm obsessed with getting this right and I spent this past weekend working virtually the whole time on writing a more captivating beginning. Then Monday, I checked over what I wrote and ... bang ... I realized there's no flippin' way my characters would allow that to happen.
When I first wrote the beginning I had a vague idea of my characters. (I'm a pantser, so I don't plot it out beforehand, until I start getting deeper into the story.) It was like meeting someone at a party and having a 15 minute conversation. Based on the way they dress, speak, and carry themselves and on what kind of job they have, you start to formulate a personality for them. You start to assume what kind of person they are. Then the next time you meet them, they tell you something else about themselves that draws you into a deeper understand of who they really are. Maybe they aren't as superficial as you first thought. Maybe they aren't as together as you first believed. That's what happend with my characters. I got to know them better. And they were yelling at me loud and clear: "there's no way I'd do that."
After discussing it with Mike and waking up at 4 am with the new dialogue and scene running through my mind, I got it. I just have to write it. I guess this is why other authors have said, "don't get attached to your writing." Otherwise, you'd never scrap days of work when you know it just doesn't work. When I think about spending about 8 hours this weekend, working and reworking the beginning, it makes me totally depressed. But I needed to do it to get to this point. I needed to spend more time with my characters so they wouldn't be so ticked at me for making them do something they would never allow—something out of character. I was able to look at the scene anew and ask "What would motivate my characters to do that?"
I was a Golden Heart judge this year for RWA. Nearly every story I judged had the main flaw of character motivation. It can really put a damper on the story and turn good writing sour. Some of the stories had potential and the writing was decent. However, I couldn't believe that their characters would put themselves in those situations, and I couldn't buy the story. If a reader can't make the leap of faith that your characters will do X,Y,Z then they can't relate to them. And you lost your reader.
I know this will work. I have a nervous flittering my stomach—writer's intuition—that this is how it would really go down. I'm itching to write it. I can't wait to get my work out of the way so I can just concentrate on this scene and bang it out.
Wish me luck.
When I first wrote the beginning I had a vague idea of my characters. (I'm a pantser, so I don't plot it out beforehand, until I start getting deeper into the story.) It was like meeting someone at a party and having a 15 minute conversation. Based on the way they dress, speak, and carry themselves and on what kind of job they have, you start to formulate a personality for them. You start to assume what kind of person they are. Then the next time you meet them, they tell you something else about themselves that draws you into a deeper understand of who they really are. Maybe they aren't as superficial as you first thought. Maybe they aren't as together as you first believed. That's what happend with my characters. I got to know them better. And they were yelling at me loud and clear: "there's no way I'd do that."
After discussing it with Mike and waking up at 4 am with the new dialogue and scene running through my mind, I got it. I just have to write it. I guess this is why other authors have said, "don't get attached to your writing." Otherwise, you'd never scrap days of work when you know it just doesn't work. When I think about spending about 8 hours this weekend, working and reworking the beginning, it makes me totally depressed. But I needed to do it to get to this point. I needed to spend more time with my characters so they wouldn't be so ticked at me for making them do something they would never allow—something out of character. I was able to look at the scene anew and ask "What would motivate my characters to do that?"
I was a Golden Heart judge this year for RWA. Nearly every story I judged had the main flaw of character motivation. It can really put a damper on the story and turn good writing sour. Some of the stories had potential and the writing was decent. However, I couldn't believe that their characters would put themselves in those situations, and I couldn't buy the story. If a reader can't make the leap of faith that your characters will do X,Y,Z then they can't relate to them. And you lost your reader.
I know this will work. I have a nervous flittering my stomach—writer's intuition—that this is how it would really go down. I'm itching to write it. I can't wait to get my work out of the way so I can just concentrate on this scene and bang it out.
Wish me luck.
posted by J.T. Bock at 10:57 AM
1 Comments:
Go you!! I'm glad it finally came to you. :) I hope my writing shows up that way to me. Of course...my first scene is usually where I jump right in and spend SOOOOO much time getting to know them that the rest takes a huge effort.
I can't wait to read the changes and the entire story after that.
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