Saturday, October 25, 2008

Who are these people?

I've spent almost a hundred pages with Ian and Sophie, they're in the middle of angry sex, and I don't know who they are.  To remedy that, I took out some old notes on the best story I've ever written (you will weep at the fragility of their relationship) and have applied them to the two strangers in my WIP. 
* What is his/her external goal?
* What is his/her external motivation?
* What is his/her external conflict
(yep, GMC)
* What is his/her internal goal?
* What is his/her internal motivation?
* What is his/her internal conflict?
* What would he/she never do?
* What is he/she afraid of?
* What is he/she really afraid of?
* What is his/her bone deep "the world will end if anyone knows" fear?
* What is his/her strength?
* What is his/her flaw?
* What was the worse decision he/she ever made?
* How does he/she see himself/herself?
This has helped enormously.  I knew Sophie was a "fixer", but her "world will end" fear?  She doesn't want anyone to know she doesn't know what she's doing.
And her internal motivation?  If I can fix everyone else's problems, then I don't have any.
I still have a few holes to plug, and some plotting (gasp!) to do, but now that I know how their traits affect each other - it sets up more conflict.  And that's a good thing.

1 comment:

Jenny Trout said...

Have you tried stick figures?