Thursday, December 20, 2007

Motivation

I'm trying a new approach on the revisions...actually it's almost a total rewrite of my ms. I'd love to say I'm hard at work and the word count is growing, but I've been gathering. I'm wanting to take a more organized path this time to see if maybe it'll make a difference. When I wrote this ms the first time, it was a NaNo.

Samantha Hunter is a Blaze author with Harlequin and she is currently working a thread at eHQ about motivation. When I first heard them discussing the workshop, I thought maybe it was about writing through adversity or outside influences during the holidays...nope. It plays in more with what I had been reading about ~ layering and character traits.

One of the things that she mentions is...WHY? There are so many things that can play into your character's motivation. History, personality, reactions and background issues ~ just to name a few.

The Motivation Clinic

I really liked something she mentioned - a motivational chain. Start questioning why and see where it takes you. I think it adds a three dimensional depth to a character. Several of the authors lately have had threads where their characters are being interviewed and chatting with readers. It made it seem more realistic, especially after having read the book. But the readers were digging into motivation and what drives the character.

How deep do you get into your characters...and how do you keep it consistent?

4 comments:

Chicki Brown said...

Thanks so much for turning me on to this workshop. I love going deep, but I need to know how to do it better. (Gee, that sounded dirty, didn't it?)

Chelle Sandell said...

Haha! Yes it does, you dirty girl you. LOL.

I'm working today on interviewing my characters so I can dig a little deeper myself. ;)

Anonymous said...

I read every word of that workshop. Thanks, Chelle. I love 'going deep' too. :)
Asking why gets the anwser we need to make our stories better

Chelle Sandell said...

LOL! Yeah...I wanted to share. ;)