 For Authors: October 17, 2012 Issue [#5313] |
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This week: Motivating Your Characters Edited by: Crys-not really here  
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| Hello! It's Crys-not really here again with another For Authors Newsletter! I love guest editing this newsletter because it allows for me to talk about anything that I might find useful for writers on WDC. Today's topic is finding motivation for your characters' actions. |
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Motivating Your Characters: Could Freud Help?
When I write fiction, particularly novel-length fiction, I usually have a hard time with my characters' motivation. Something happens to my protagonist and then I struggle with how she'll react. Or, my antagonist is about to do something really evil, but I have no idea why! What about my antagonist's background has brought him to this point? Usually, I have no idea. . .
But then I started taking an introductory class to counseling theories. It's a required class for graduate students in Professional Counseling at my school that somehow counts as an elective for me, a graduate student in Secondary Education. It's probably been one of the most helpful classes for me to use both in real life and in my writing. Today, I'd like to share with you some basic concepts that you may find handy in your own writing.
Most of us are familiar with Freud's theories. Although I don't always agree with Freud, some of his stuff can be useful when applied to character motivation. For example, what kind of defense mechanisms does your protagonist use? Does she:
 repress her emotions?
displace her emotions onto a person who is less dangerous than her aggressor?
project her emotions on someone else? ("I feel this way, so you must feel this way!")
identify with her aggressor?
use reaction formation: turn her unacceptable feelings into the opposite? (For example, does she secretly desire someone she can't have, therefore she acts like she hates him?)
regress to an earlier way of dealing with her life, like sucking her thumb?
or tunnel her emotions into a socially acceptable activity like music or running (sublimation)
These are all defense mechanisms that we use in real life, but we might not realize we use them. Once I realized how I handle crisis situations in my own life, I was able to see how my characters might as well.
Other things you might what to borrow from Freud:
Fixation- Has your character experienced trauma in her life? Maybe she is stuck in the stage of life when the trauma occurred, and that's preventing her from moving on. The behaviors she exhibits therefore may be related to that stage in her life.
The Oedipal Complex- although a little far fetched at times, you could use the Oedipal Complex to explain a character's current relationship with her parents.
If you're interested in psychology, you may also want to look into Object Relations Theory. It's a little too complicated to explain here, but basically it's the theory that "if I grow up being treated like crap, I will treat others like crap when I grow up." I think it could also be useful in formulating your characters' personalities! |
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Thanks to everyone who wrote into my last For Authors Newsletter "How Much Do You Plan?" Your opinions on this topic are so varied!
Imagination is the key to any story. How can your imagination flow when you make it all up at the beginning on what you want your novel to be about? When I write I know where I am going in my novel but I do not use a big questionare on how the whole novel should go. How can you have any fun with writing if you are writing on the straight and narrow? I just don't see why you would plan your whole story before you write a story. Don't have ties in the novel let the novel flow and be free so it can be more than a story. -readsalot
You have a good point- Imagination is key. Some people can sit down and write a novel from beginning to end and it make a lot of sense. Those people are few and far between, however. Even J.K. Rowling had a detailed outline for all of the Harry Potter books and all of the characters formed in her mind. The more you know about your setting and characters ahead of time, the easier it is to bring it alive on the page. I am not a big fan of writing detailed outlines and sticking to them word for word--there are always going to be unexpected plot twists that pop up in the process--but I think a writer should at least know the characters and conflict before starting to write.
Planning to a degree is always better, for me. As to your list of requirements, I totally agree. However the best things I've written seem to have all that background work done in the back of my head before I put words down. Most of them, anyway.
Sometimes I get "stuck" and it shows in my writing. I can tell you even years after I've finished something were I struggled to get an idea across because it shows in the writing. When I've actually had to put the outline on paper, I find I veer from it often but within the chapter boundaries as serendipitous discoveries are made.
Sometimes my characters amaze me, sometimes they argue with me about what comes next. I love writing because I discover things about my characters I didn't know when I started. Ultimately, I know, I am discovering things about myself. -arrwyn
Hi Crys! Good primer and info for Nano. I agree about having an outline, but not beign ties to it. That's one of the reasons I don't do Nano. If I feel something's not right, or I have a better idea, I need to stop for a while, figure it out, and change the outline to fit the new direction. You just can't do that in Nano.
Good luck to you and all the NaNoWriMo-ers!  -LJPC - the tortoise 
I start with a basic outline: Beginning, Middle, End. I add characters, and a few basic scenes in each section. As I write, I go back to my Outline and add or delete scenes, make changes as changes happen, make note of another scene I need to write in another chapter because I re-wrote a scene in a previous chapter, etc.keeping my outline updated. Eventually my outline becomes a notebook in which I keep track of who did what to whom, when, and where. Even the dog's name in Chapter two, page five. Later, if I need another dog and can't remember the first dog's name, or can't remember the dog's hair color for ex. I don't have to search through the entire novel to find it. Same with minor characters, places,color of hair, etc.
In the rewriting of chapters, scenes, this outline becomes my reference source. I'm constantly adding, deleting, moving things around. It helps me stay organized.
So the answer to your question, "How much do I plan?" I plan a lot, but not all at once.-LaPia
I love the NaNo Prep that Brandiwyn holds and have taken part in it every years since the first one back in 2008 (even when I didn't end up doing NaNo in 2009). However, for most novels the only planning I do is watching the story in my head for at least a few months. So, it's kind of planning, I just don't write it down. -Dawn Embers 
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