A-Z Challenge Day 13 - M

 

M is for

Motivation and ... Muddleheadedness!

Debra Dixon's book GMC came to my notice long after I'd started writing.  In it the author creates--no, I'll share the blurb, it says it better than I can..
"Goal, Motivation & Conflict will show you how to use these three key elements to give dimension to your characters and direction to your plot. It will help you plan a road map to keep your story on track, discover why your scenes aren't working and how to fix them, create characters that editors and readers will care about, be confident your idea will work before you write 200 pages, end sagging middles and much more. Clear and concise with many helpful examples."

I doesn't matter how long or short your story, nor does genre make any difference, every piece of writing offered for public reading must have these ingrediant.  (Even, to some degree, the most dusty piece of technical or informational writing offered.)

Goals are where you want to go, the direction your plot and characters will take to achieve their dreams.
Motivation is the incentive that drives both forward.
Conflict, as the word implies, is what the author keeps dropping into the story to bring the characters alive.

And the author must have all three clearly set out in their head when they start writing!

You would think os, wouldn't you, but what about authors, such as myself?  those who call themselves 'pansters'.  Do they have neat lists of how what when and where pasted to their timesheet on the wall in front of them.  certainly, I don't, which comes to my 2nd 'M'!

Muddleheadedness!

How can a pantser possibly use Goal, Motivation and Conflict if they have no forward planning?  Like most things, 'practice makes perfect.'  Well perhaps not, but you know what I mean.

They become three more tools that eventually become such an integral part of writing the pantser instinctively knows when their story is running off the rails.
That doesn' mean they won't persever on their original course, but it does mean that eventually they will probably have to backtrack and restart from where they deviated from the 'right' path.

While every plotter reading this will sigh in exasperation and pity the 'poor deluded pantser,'who if only they could organise themselves better they wouldn't keep derailing themselves;'  the pantser considers it the breath of life (admittedly ,annoying at times,) that often reveals the mssing spark in their GMC up to that point.

There are many routes to the same destination, and it is the result that matters.

So bring on Motivation -and- Muddleheadedness!

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