Building Character Arc: Why a Motto Is Vital

 

Photo by Donna Marijne

When developing characters, many of us use the method of "interviewing" them before we start the story. We need to know who they are and how they approach the world. What colors the view through their personal glasses? One of my favorite questions to tease out that issues is "What is his or her motto?" 

Yes, you can write notes and notes on their backstory, what they look like, what clothes they like to wear, whatever. But usually the essence of who the person is and how they're going to react in your book is the answer to that simple question--what is their motto? 

Susan Gable defines a motto as: A deeply held personal belief, stemming from the characters backstory, that impacts the way s/he views and world and behaves.

 

This motto is  a quick way to boil down to the bones and find your character's internal motivation and conflict. What world view do they have to change in order to resolve their internal conflict? What is ground zero for their character arc?

Here are some examples:

 

People always leave.

(Old school One Tree Hill fans will recognize this as Peyton's motto.) 

This is actually the motto of my current heroine as well. So from that simple three word motto, I can tease out so much more about her. If people always leave, then that means she's slow to trust, has feelings of inadequacy because if people always leave her that must mean something is wrong with her, and believes that love must be conditional. This also gives me my arc endpoint. At the end, she's going to have to trust someone and make herself vulnerable, will have to believe in her own self-worth, and have to accept that there is real love out there. All that from one motto.

 

Get them, before they get me.

(Puck on Glee)

 

It's better to burn out than fade away.

(Def Lepard lyric and a line in Kurt Cobain's suicide note)

 

When you know better, you do better

(Oprah's mantra from Maya Angelou)

 

Second place is first loser.

(The Karate Kid)

 

People who think they know it all, annoy those of us who do.

(Dwight, The Office)

 

Commitment=death

(Barney, How I Met Your Mother)

 

Revenge is the only answer.

(Damon, The Vampire Diaries)

So what is your character's motto? Or what is your favorite book/tv/movie character's motto? I'd love to hear your own examples. Do you this this is a helpful exercise in developing internal motivation?

*This is an updated post from 2009

Too Stupid To Live Characters

First, a confession.  Yes, I occasionally watch Lifetime movies.  I know I'm not breaking any female stereotypes, but anyway there it is.  Now, I know when I tune into one of these movies that the story is probably going to be a bit melodramatic and that I shouldn't expect Oscar worthy scripts.  However, the one I watched the other day just made me want to beat my head against the remote.  Yet, I couldn't stop watching of course.


The story, The Boy Next Door, was a pretty simple set up:  romance author (now you know why I tuned in) rents a lakeside cottage to work on her next book.  The guy living next door turns out to be a handsome, young stud who she starts watching and taking pictures of from afar for inspiration for her book. (stalk much?) Then, of course, one night she's taking pictures of him and some woman through his kitchen window and the next day, he turns up dead.  Shocker.

Okay, so conflict: she doesn't want to tell the cops about the pictures because, well, it's creepy and weird that she was taking them in the first place.  This is where my first issue came in--if I have pics of a potential murder suspect, I'm handing them over, even if it means embarrassment.  But I bit my lip and suspended my disbelief to keep watching.  Well, because she's acting all shifty, the cops begin to suspect her.

Now she feels like she needs to prove her innocence.  So what does she do?  She breaks into the house next door to search for evidence.  Um, seriously?  Suspicion is on you, so you're going to go sprinkle your DNA all over the potential crime scene--not to mention risk getting caught in the house?  Puh-lease.  Now we have entered TSTL (too stupid to live) territory.

Do not do this in your writing.  This pisses off readers almost as much as killing the dog.  But what if you need for your character to get into a particular situation to move the plot forward?

Then, motivate it.  If, say, the woman in this movie had heard that the cops were coming to pick her up in the morning and throw her in jail, then maybe I would believe she would take such a huge risk and break into the house because it was her last hope.

Readers want to believe what you're telling them, but without proper motivation, they won't buy it.  So make sure if you need your heroine to go investigate her yard in the middle of the night because she heard a noise that you've given her good motivation to do so.  If she's a cop and is confident wielding a gun and searching for a bad guy, then I'll go there with you.  If she's a waitress, has no weapon, and is afraid of the dark, I'm closing the book and moving onto something else.

This gem of a Lifetime movie also held a lesson on coincidences, which I will cover tomorrow, so be sure to stop by.  :)

So, what movies or books have you seen/read that had TSTL characters?  Have you ever found your characters doing something because your plot needed it to happen but their motivation didn't make sense?  Am I the only one watching Lifetime movies?

**Today's Theme Song**
"Stupid Girls" - Pink

(player in sidebar if you'd like a listen)

Backstory: Avoiding Flat Characters

Photo by AForestFrolic (click pic for link)

In an effort to think positively, I have decided to start on the second romance in the Wanderlust series.  Initially, I had moved on to a different project because I have a fear of starting a sequel before Book one sells.  But in this case, the books are meant to be free-standing stories if necessary--i.e. a character is pulled from book one but it's a different band member's story.  (For those of you who have beta read for me, this would be Sean's story.)

Plus, the characters have been poking me in the ribs demanding I let them have their own story.  So I have started doing my haphazard outlining for book two and have the concepts sketched out for books three and four.  See, I told you, I'm in positive thinking mode.  There better be something to that whole "Secret" thing Oprah's always talking about.  :)

So as I get my thoughts together on the book, I realized that one of the most important components for me is backstory.  If I don't know the character's backstory, then I have trouble starting the book.  There are writers out there that say you shouldn't worry about backstory, just focus on what is going on with the character's right now, but I don't agree.  Yes, we should not bog the reader down with all aspects of the character's history.  However, I as the writer need to know even if it never makes it in the book.  This goes hand and hand with motivation for me.  Why does the character act this way?  Because of A, B, C.  If I don't know this then I'm just writing a paper doll--a flat caricature with no shadows or depth.

So along with plotting and such, I come up with the big events in the character's history.  Think of this like Dr. Phil's "defining moments" technique.  He often asks his guests to list the five or ten defining moments in their lives--things that happened that changed everything.  Now hopefully your story is starting one of these moments, but you also need to know the ones from their past.  And they don't all need to be smack-you-upside-the-head incidents.

Maybe when you character starred in a play at school, his parents decided to go to his brother's football game instead--showing him who they favored.  Maybe that has made him fiercely competitive.

Or take inspiration from your own history.  I hate when people are late--loathe it.  Why?  Because when my dad used to pick me up for my every other weekend visit he was notoriously late--sometimes half an hour, sometimes much longer.  Sitting on that front step waiting for him made me feel like whatever was keeping him from picking me up on time was more important than me.

It is especially vital to know the history when your character has some less than admirable qualities or takes some undesirable action.  For instance, my character is in a band and has been a bit of womanizer in the past.  So I need to motivate that properly to let the reader eventually forgive him for these past actions and be open to seeing him as the hero.

Now the key to all of this is to know your character inside and out, but to be able to convey that to your reader without telling them all that background.  So, tomorrow I am going to go through some techniques of how to work in your backstory without bogging down your story.

So what is your method?  Do you start writing and develop backstory as you go along or do you need to know the history before getting started?  Or, do you believe that backstory isn't that important and that you should only worry about the here and now of the character?

 

 

**Today's Theme Song**

 

"My Paper Heart" - All-American Rejects

(player in sidebar if you'd like a listen)

What Keeps You Going?

As complicated as we humans are, there are certain rules that hold true for pretty much everyone. For instance, we don't do things for no reason. Whether it's conscious or not, we do things for some kind of payoff (or to avoid some type of negative consequence). This is why "they" tell you to not shower your child with attention when they are acting out--don't give them a reward for a bad behavior. This is also why you know not to touch a hot stove--you want to avoid the consequence.

For those of you who took Psyc 101, you'll recognize this as behavior theory or operant conditioning.

So why am I going all psyc student on you? Because the other day I read Tina Lynn's post on the difficult journey of trying to get published and the fact that even if the dream comes true, we're most likely not going to be rich and famous or anything. It got me to wondering, what keeps up going despite the bleak outlook and lack of monetary reward? Are we just stupid?

So let me insult everyone and compare us to rats...

There are four factors that determine if a rat/person will continue to do a certain behavior:

1. Satiation/Deprivation

Rats: If a rat is really hungry and the reward is food, then he's more likely to perform whatever action. However, if he's full, he will be less motivated.

Writers: We are STARVED for publication, so we are like those girls on Survivor, taking our clothes off for a spoonful of peanut butter.

2. Immediacy

Rats: If the reward is given right after the behavior, the rats are more likely to perform. If it's delayed, they aren't as motivated

Writers: There is very little immediacy for us. Writing and editing take time, query responses can take months (if you ever get a response). If you're lucky enough to get a agent--then the shopping to publishers takes time and it still may not sell. Then if you do sell, to get on the shelf takes even longer. Which means--we're dumber than rats in this respect. :) However, I think this is also one reason we get crit groups and blog--this offers small bouts of immediate gratification to keep us going--we'll take crumbs.

3. Contingency

Rats: If the food pellet is offered every time they hit the lever, they're more likely to keep doing it. If it only happens some of the time, they won't do it as much.

Writers: We hit that lever over and over and over again hoping someone will dish out a pellet. Even though the big one hasn't come out yet, we're still hopeful. We're also happy if just a bit comes out (a good crit, a nice comment, a breakthrough in writing our plot , a personalized rejection letter, etc.) We have this in common with slot machine players--one day we could hit the jackpot.

4. Size

Rats: If the reward is lame, the rat isn't that motivated. Give that rodent a big hunk of cheese and he's good to go.

Writers: The reward is HUGE, if elusive. Having a professional believe in our writing, getting published, seeing our name on a book, having others read what we wrote and enjoy it, being able to do what we love for a living, etc. I think this, above all, is what keeps many of us on the path.

So in a lab, we wouldn't be the smartest rats, but at least we're dedicated, right? Why am I telling you all of this? Well, first it's because I'm a psychology nerd. But really it's because when you get down or feel like giving up, remember these things. Go seek out some crumbs--talk to your crit group, focus on the positives you've experienced, think about the end goal.

Earlier this week I was having one of those days where I just felt down. Why am I doing this? Will this ever happen? Do I totally suck? Am I wasting my time? I love to write, but should I be more practical? Blah, blah, blah.

Then, I got two positive crits back from my group on chapters. This perked me up and I felt a little better. However, I still was feeling frustrated. I did the whole--I need some kind of sign, universe. And seriously, later that day, I was answered.

I received a full request on Wanderlust from a publisher (who will remain nameless, but let's just say I'm beyond thrilled.) So the rat inside me ran around in circles because I got a big chunk of cheddar. And my motivation was renewed. Now I have enough juice in my tank to wait the months to hear back and to continue writing my next manuscript.

So what about you? What keeps you going despite the adversity? If you're having a bad day, what turns it around for you? If you knew you would never get published, would you still write?

**Today's Theme Song**

"Bullet with Butterfly Wings" - Smashing Pumpkins

AKA Despite All My Rage I am Still Just a Rat in a Cage

(player in sidebar if you'd like a listen)