Plot and Character Motivation
By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Sometimes I wonder why I outline at all. I never seem to stick to them.
In the book that I’m currently writing (already covered, right, since it’s so tricky to reserve cover designers closer to release), I decided a few days ago to change the killer. If I’d continued on the path I was going with my outline, I thought there would be a good percentage of people who would figure out the murderer before the end of the book. The suspect that I decided to use instead would be a real surprise and would get me that twisty ending that I wanted.
The problem was…there was no motive at all for this person to have murdered the victim—that’s why the reader was going to be so surprised.
This was an easy enough problem for me to fix. I’d have the killer’s motive trickle in during the story—but not in an obvious way. There would be clues to the motive…clues that I would have to hastily distract from as soon as I planted them.
But fixing this problem reminded me that believable plots really do all come down to motive. Even in other genres.
If our characters act out of character to force a particular storyline, the plot is weaker.
We can enrich our stories by asking what drives each character—what they want most. That’s what motivates them to do all sorts of things: keep secrets, avoid other characters, argue, flirt, save money, spend money. Character driven stories sometimes feel as if they write themselves.
So if we find we’re manipulating a character to serve the plot, that’s when we need to sit down and figure out how to make the character’s motive in line with where we want the plot to go. Or be open to considering a plot change.
Often, it’s not a tough edit to make. I think it took only about thirty minutes to think up and then slip in the clues to the character’s motive and true nature to the plot. That’s not long to fix something that big.
How do you keep on track with character motivation? Have you ever had to alter a book to make a story align with motive?
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