As mentioned in my previous post, I’m a firm believer that your main character is the core of your novel. Without a strong character, the plot doesn’t matter. Make the readers root for the main character to get through the plot, and you’ll make them care.
One of the biggest parts of developing your character is determining the goal, motivation, and conflict (GMC) that keeps them from achieving their goal. Their motivation is usually the backstory that propels them throughout the novel and pushes the story and plot forward.
One of my critique partners for Baggage pointed out that certain scenes in my first outline draft seem to lack coal, motivation, and conflict. And after sitting on the feedback for a night and thinking about it, I realized she was right.
For my virtual index cards, I like to include these for each scene I write, and I forgot this with the first draft of my Baggage outline. (I’ll get into the layout and process of my index cards in a later post.) To give your story a purpose, define GMC from the start for your main character – and for the other major players in the world. I covered this a little in my last post with the want, need, ghost, and lie. But on top of characters, each scene should also have a goal, motivation, and conflict. And every character in each scene should have a goal, motivation, and conflict. Run the GMC through your entire brainstorming process and save yourself the headache later!
In my character sheets, I start out by defining the goal, motivation, and conflict for each character— internally and externally. Externally relates to physical wants and needs. For Ainsley in Baggage, that equates to a higher paying job. She wants to physically pay off her debt so she doesn’t have to live on her sister’s couch anymore, which gets a little embarrassing in her thirties. That embarrassment is part of her motivation. So is keeping up with the Joneses. Her high school friends have high paying jobs with luxury cars and vacations planned to Bora Bora or Hawai’i, while she’s stuck pulling quarters out of couch cushions to buy store brand ice cream and duck taping her bumper onto the car that doesn’t have working heat.
For conflict, I wanted it built into my character web, so not only does she have to compete against her coworkers for shifts and overtime to help pay off her debt, but she has to deal with identity theft from her mother and getting her scheduling done by her ex fiancé, who is still her boss. Tension and stakes all around.
I love to make my character squirm. The more miserable they are, the greater satisfaction I take in their triumph in the end. So for me, Ainsley’s internal GMC is more important than her external. And I try to link the two together as best as I can.
For Ainsley, her internal goal revolves around peace and happiness, two things she hasn’t had – along with stability – in quite a few years. She wants to find a happy place. To her, that seems like leaving the state (want not need – see how it ties in?). The primary driver (motivation) is the toxic relationship with her mother and with her gaslighting ex fiancé. By making the internal and external goals both center around her ex fiancé, I tie the two together. Her internal conflict stems from the ghost. She doesn’t trust her own judgment after staying with her ex for so long. And her mother’s told her for years that she isn’t good enough, that she should settle for what she has and be grateful. So she has years of lies she must overcome. Lie, Ghost, Want, Need and Goal, Motivation, and Conflict. All working together.
As I brainstorm GMC for my main character, both for plot and scenes, I also focus on building the GMC charts for my secondary characters. It’s likely that a lot of this information won’t end up explicitly in the novel, but building the blueprint from the start helps keep my characters on the tracks and helps me navigate my scenes as I build my outline. The more conflict and contrast in the goals and motivations between the characters, the more fun you can have playing with tension and stakes in the story. For example, one of Ainsley‘s coworkers is vying for the overtime because she also needs the money. But unlike Ainsley, she has not left her abusive significant other. She is stuck in her toxic marriage, which Ainsley doesn’t realize. So as that information comes to light, empathy mixes with self preservation and causes contrast in how Ainsley feels about taking for those extra shifts. It’s something that is minimal to the overall plot, but adds tension between her and her coworker throughout the story, and allows both of them to have room for character growth.
I try to remind myself that stories are fluid. Often, the initial idea I have for GMC, either internal or external, ends up changing by the time I’m done with my outline or my first draft. For example, in my thesis, Aimee wasn’t nearly as developed in brainstorming as she ended up. Her original goal was to steal Ty and be a trophy wife. But as I wrote the draft, Aimee took a life of her own. And I am glad I went with the flow, because she ended up so much more fascinating and complex than I originally imagined for her. Now I can’t wait to write a companion story for her, whereas I hated her character in my original outline. In fact, many critique partners want to see where Aimee’s story goes as well. Never underestimate the value of your minor characters. Take the time to develop them, even if most the information never hits the page.
After I finish brainstorming GMC, I look at my cast of characters and start honing in my character web. This is what we’ll talk about in the next post, though I warn you that this is something I’m still iterating through during my outlining and drafting process. I often cut characters based on what critique partners say and based on my lens coming back to the story with a second light.
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