I SPY: Goals, Motivation, & Conflict (GMC)

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Goals, Motivation, & Conflict (GMC)

Writers have many tools for crafting a story. One of the techniques I use is Debra Dixon’s concept of GMC: Goal Motivation, Conflict. Her book (which can be purchased new through her website here, if you’re interested – beware the exorbitant prices of used copies on other sites) outlines in detail how to use this technique. In this post, I’ll briefly discuss how I’ve utilized and adapted her concepts to fit my needs.

Basically, working through the GMC of each character (especially the ones who have a point of view) helps me get a firm grip on what needs to happen in the plot to help each of these characters reach their full potential. Near the beginning of a manuscript (sometimes I’ll write a couple chapters first to get an idea of my characters), I sit down with paper and pencil and sketch something like this out (please forgive my handwriting):

At the top, I have a two-word description (usually adjective and noun) of the character, such as “ex-military loner” or “overworked CEO." Here, I've described Rachel, the heroine of a novella I'm working on, as a "dedicated nurturer." (She's a doctor who works too much, and her personal relationships suffer for it.). This descriptor is something that gives a snapshot of that character (and often makes it into my blurb about the book).

The chart has “Internal” and “External” on the x axis because we’ll be looking at each item as it affects the character internally and externally. In my experience, the "internal" column is especially important to character development and growth while the "external" often impacts the plot points.

On the y-axis are three rows, divided into Goal, Motivation, and Conflict. The Goal is WHAT the character wants or needs to achieve. The Motivation refers to WHY the character wants that goal. The Conflict is the WHY NOT, or what is preventing them from achieving their goal.

In my novella, what I have of the plot so far involves the heroine going to a high school reunion and, having had no time for a significant relationship, deciding to ask an old boyfriend to serve as her date. He agrees, but when she arrives at the hotel room, he's been murdered. She's been framed. The detective who shows up (the hero) knows her and tries to help.

That's the gist, but I use the GMC to flesh things out a bit more. Using the GMC grid, I have the following for Rachel:

• Internal Goals: 1.) Connect with someone AND 2.) Find love
• External Goals: 1.) Survive her 10-yr. high school reunion AND 2.) Find out who killed her ex-boyfriend

• Internal Motivation: 1.) Tired of being alone AND 2.) Desires a deeper connection (love)
• External Motivation: 1.) Wants to be a success (to outrun her family's past/reputation) AND 2.) Wants to be cleared of ex-boyfriend's murder by finding out who killed him

• Internal Conflict: 1.) Works too much (no time for relationships as she builds her medical practice) AND 2.) She's learned from her parents how painful love relationships can be.
• External Conflict: 1.) In high school, she was the odd girl, the one with a bad family reputation AND 2.) She's attracted to Detective Jake Flynn, so working with him leads to other distractions and issues. Besides, he might have to arrest her for murder if he can't help her prove her innocence.

At the bottom of the same page, I usually add a couple sections where I can jot down specific features of my character. Under the header “Physical Traits” I put things like hair and eye color, height, age, and the like. Under “History/Background” I can jot down things like when and where the character attended school, what their degree was, a sketch of a family tree, relationship history, and anything that helps with timeline and personality development. Some of these things I know up front and some notes I add as I write the story.

The magic of this technique is it helps me create a one-page cheat sheet for each character. I use it as a reference tool as I write. Also, once I have a grip on the GMC of my hero and heroine, villain, and anyone else who is vital to the story, I usually gain a lot of insight into how the story will unfold. But plotting is another topic (and another chart — complete with color-coded sticky-notes) all together!

How about you? Do you have any questions about GMC? Have you used a similar technique to develop your characters?

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FUTURE POSTS will cover:
Kindlegraph / the art of research / writing male/male romance / rejection and writer's block / building suspense / writing love scenes / anti-piracy strategies / audio books / interviews with editors and agents / using Calibre.
We welcome everyone's constructive comments and suggestions!

Listen Up, Grasshopper

Psst. I’ve got a secret to share. It’s a big one. The key to happiness? The secret of life? Yeah, it’s balance.

I’m convinced of it. The times I haven’t been happy, there was some unevenness in my life…something that pulled me so strongly in one direction I neglected the others.

One way of thinking about it is to dissect life into four realms: physical, social, mental/emotional, and spiritual. I’m happiest when I have an equal footing in all four. (Imagine the game Twister here, with your feet and hands in each of four colors. That's about how it feels most days, too.)

How does this translate into the art of writing? Conflicts are all about imbalance. The conflicts characters face arise when their lives become so unbalanced that they must try to restore balance through their actions. (In the case of the villain, this is often through unconventional or illegal means.) The inciting incident that launches the entire story is all about upsetting the apple cart and sending your characters on a quest to reclaim their apples…or making the decision they’d rather have oranges.

As a reader (and as a human who strives for balance), I love to read about the hero and heroine being thrown off their life path…better them than me, I say. I'd rather live vicariously through them any day. Especially since suspense typically involves some rather stressful (i.e., dangerous) ways of pushing the characters off balance. And the more of those four realms involved, the stronger the conflict.

For example, in Only Fear, a stalker enters the heroine’s life, invading her (social) sanctuary, putting her in (physical) danger, and dredging up (emotional) issues she's shoved aside for much too long. In Avenging Angel, the heroine's world (social & emotional) is rocked when her intern is murdered, and she has the (social) expertise to help find the killer, which puts her in (physical) danger. Beneath it all is the more spiritual concept of hope versus despair, and the desire for justice. My entire Mindhunters series was the result of an extreme imbalance in one man’s life. Damian Manchester launched the SSAM foundation when his daughter was the victim of a serial killer. He needed to regain his sense of control and direct his grief toward something positive (and hopefully find closure by finding his daughter’s killer).

Human beings have an innate desire for balance, and stories resonate with people because everyone knows what it's like to have that balance upset...and to try so hard to regain their footing.

So, Grasshopper, now you know the key to a happy life, and a happy ending to a book: finding and maintaining balance.

What are some of the imbalances characters face in the books you’re currently reading (or writing)?

Paraprosdokians – A New Look at an Old Technique

First of all, let’s do the important stuff – Happy Year and A Day, Carina! Toss the confetti and raise a glass of cyber-champagne for just about the best, most innovative – and nicest to work with – publishing operation in the world! Yea, Carina!!

Okay, now down to work.

I’ll admit, I didn’t know what a paraprosdokian was until a friend sent me a list of them. She’s always sending me jokes and funnies and, I’ll admit, I laughed heartily on reading them. Then the writing brain took over (doesn’t it always?) and I read them again, finally realizing that they were a lesson all in themselves.

By definition, a paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect. Here are a few of the best ones :

-- I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn’t work that way, so I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.

-- I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather. Not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car.

-- To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.

-- A bus station is where a train stops. A railway station is where a train stops. My desk is a work station.

-- You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive more than once.

-- The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas.

-- To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.

-- Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

You see what I mean? Each starts out with a statement that gives you an idea – then the second part puts an entirely new spin on the idea, usually turning your perception of it 90 degrees in a different direction. In other words, a turning point.

In real life, with real people, I’ll bet that most of us like a smooth stream – learn, meet, love, prosper, happy every after with no catastrophes or dead bodies or evil villains or whatnot. Such a progression is comforting and happy – and boring, at least from a story point of view. In our books, whether mystery or sci-fi or romance or whatever, we love to torture our characters and that is best done by surprise and change.

The character we trust turns out to be the villain. The safe house isn’t. The clue that proves the hero innocent is false. (See where I’m going?) A single incident pops up and suddenly the entire story is careening off in a different direction. Could we call these ‘plot paraprosdokians?’ Sure – if we can remember that tongue twister of a word! (You’re on your own there.)

Sometimes these plot twists can happen in a single sentence. Or paragraph. Or, in some rare cases, a chapter or more. It depends, as so much does, on the style of the writer and on the story itself, But they must happen, or your story becomes a sweet, linear telling of events that have no excitement, no challenge, and very probably no real interest.

For example, Bob comes home from work and finds a dead body lying in his driveway. He calls the police. The police find he has nothing to do with the body. Bob goes on and lives his life. Snoooooooze! Even though, if I were Bob, that’s what I’d want to happen in real life, but it makes for a boring and unsellable story.

By contrast, Bob comes home from work and finds a dead body lying in his driveway. The body is that of a fraternity brother from his college days, one who ostensibly died in a frat house fire. Also, unbeknownst to Bob, the body was Bob’s new wife’s brother.

See? You can go on and on, turning each plot twist in on itself, each time giving your story more depth and complexity, as well as more danger and higher stakes for your protagonist.

Deepen your plotting – become a practicing paraprosdokianist. I think I just broke my spell-check. Whether you can spell it or not, though it works. Give it a try.

by Janis Patterson

CASTING AGAINST TYPE

Theatre director and writers or their characters will often cast against type. Think about the sweet, innocent child who wrecks havoc on his playmates and siblings—a monster who cannot be saved by parents, priest or psychiatrist. Example: The Bad Seed written by William March, later made into a film, where a mother begins to believe her child could be a cold-blooded murderer.
And who hasn’t written or read about the handsome, personable and—oh yes—intelligent man—unfortunately a serial killer—who revels in matching wits with detectives, police or the FBI? There’s a prime example in Dr. Hannibal Lecter, starring in a series of horror novels, penned by Thomas Harris. How many readers fall for the virginal, usually blonde ingénue whose obsessive love, jealousy and neediness will ruin the lives of people whose lives touch hers. Read Leave her to Heaven written by Ben Ames Williams—another novel to film with Gene Tierney, Jeanne Crain and Cornell Wilde.
The affectionate relative or teacher who turns out to be a pedophile? Or not? Doubt—a play written by John Patrick Shanley kept audience members debating for days after they left the theater. Did Father Flynn molest the boy or was Sister Aloysius, a woman of iron convictions, accusing an innocent man who was guilty of nothing but befriending the child and personalizing the priesthood?
The bad stepmother has been handed down from old folk tales—what about Snow White and her jealous stepmother—the Queen—characters written by the Brothers Grimm. Books that tell us about the good stepmother who gives her all? There aren’t many. One that stands out is Butterfly’s Child by Angela Davis-Gardner. The story takes place after the geisha Cio-Cio San kills herself leaving her child Benjie to her lover—the child’s father and his new American wife. The author’s inspiration—Puccini’s opera—Madame Butterfly. Perhaps more books are waiting to be written about the good stepmother.

When my creation twists, turns and changes the route I jotted down so carefully—I have to pay attention. A call from my character may be a surprise—sometimes pleasant, sometimes not—that alters the course of my book. I try to be ready to embark on an entirely different escapade. A not to be missed venture into the unknown.

How do you handle your characters?

LEARNING TO BE MEAN OR, NO MORE MRS. NICE GUY

I have a serious problem. I'm too nice.



You see, I was raised to "Be nice," and "Don't talk back," and "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything," and "Don't get dirty." Also, I'm Canadian and frankly, we are very polite.



This attitude sucks when it comes to my stories. Because I don't want my characters to suffer. I don't want anything bad to happen to them. I want to take the roadblocks out of their way and kiss their booboos. And the thought of actually--perish the thought--hurting them makes my stomach clench.



This is not good. I mean, characters have to suffer. They have to overcome obstacles and hardships, the harder the better. Right? After all, who wants to read a story where everything goes well and then they live happily ever after?



Writing has become a constant struggle between my "nice" nature and my story's needs.



I've tried to change. When I turned 40, I decided it was time to fight back against the Mrs.-Nice-Guy Syndrome. Time I stood up for myself. Spoke out when I had an opinion. Stared down my adversaries, if I could find any.



I've been working at it for years but I still apologize to the server when I send a dish back.



Well, this nice thing is going to stop. It's time to get a little dirty. There won't be any more Mrs. Nice Guy here. Not for my characters. And if some of that meanness spills over into my life, well, just stay out of my way and no one will get hurt.



In my next post, I'll let you know how my efforts to become evil are going. I figure I have to be at least as bad as my bad guys to do what needs doing to my characters.



Stay tuned.