First of all, if you haven’t yet don’t forget to sign up for Santa-Fest 2011. Celebrate the spirit of giving with us for the holidays and make some new friends. (There are only a few more days left to sign up. That means I’ll stop nagging soon, but it also means you should get in now while there’s still time ^_^)

I don’t have a catchy clever title today. I’ve been thinking about this, because, well, revisions, right? I have to start putting cohesive structure around my story.

The concept of goals and motivation is one that’s perplexed me for a while now. I mean, I get it in a really vague kind of ethereal way, but have always had trouble distinguishing the two. Until I read a really straight-forward explanation today that cemented it in my mind.

Motivation – what the character wants
Goals – how they plan on getting it
Conflict – what keeps them from getting it

You probably all already know this, but I have to talk it through to get it ^_^

So, ‘it’ can be anything, right? It can be an external or physical thing. Maybe they want the Holy Grail, and they plan on getting it by galloping across the countryside on foot, using coconuts to pretend they have horses, and Frenchmen with cow catapults are keeping them from getting it.

Or it can be internal. Maybe she wants to be taken seriously for her thoughts and ideas. She plans on earning that by sharing a brilliant idea with someone who will appreciate it and can help her execute it. She’s kept from that recognition by someone who can’t see the idea because of the person it came from.

This second one is what I’m dwelling on, in case anyone wondered. The story is written from three POV’s. To be clever I tried to make sure every character got equal screen time. So every three chapters, each one of them gets a POV chapter. I’m thinking I might have to lose the fairness in order to tell the right story. Because if each scene needs to showcase a character’s goals, motivation, and conflict, and I’ve picked a POV character whose goals aren’t threatened in that chapter…no conflict. Or at least not enough.

I’ve been through this pain before. Last time I revised a story (you know, a month ago). And I never quite got it all straight back then. In fact, it might be good I shelved the book because I still can’t tell you what Ronnie/Elle/Allie’s motivation was. Or apparently, what her name is. I mean, yeah it was to get rid of the voices. But apparently that’s boring. Being driving to rid onesself of the voices in their head.

/tangent

So I figure I need to secure this in my head before I get too far into revisions this time. Knowing what motivates my three main characters and how it changes as the book moves forward will keep things interesting. Right?

Crap…something tells me I have a lot of work ahead of me.

But that’s the fun of it all, right? Getting to know your characters better than you even know yourself? If we had to know this kind of information about ourselves in order to get through life, could we do it?

Hmm…philosophical thought…