Tuesday's Writer's Tip Motivation's Traits #MFRWAuthor #BWLAuthor #Motivation #Traits #amwriting

re some traits your character's motivations have that help develop the motivation for the characters' actions and reactions.

They are internal - Characters react to things that touch something in their lives and pasts.

They can be rationalizations. Just what is a rationalization? This is the reason a character gives for the way they react and act to a certain situation. Say when they were a child, a dog bit them. Any time they see a dog they freeze. They tell themselves this is because of the dog bite that exists in their memories.

They often contain secrets the character fear will be revealed. Secrets a character has inside like fearing everyone will know they're a coward, or some other thing will strengthen the character's motivations.

They are often layered. This means there are a number of incidents that lie in the character's reasons for acting or reacting in a certain way.

They will goad the character to take action.

Not all a character's motivations will contain all the traits but they must contain at least one and probably more.

My Places

https://twitter.com/JanetL717

 https://www.facebook.com/janet.l.walters.3?v=wall&story_f

bid=113639528680724

 http://bookswelove.net/

 http://wwweclecticwriter.blogspot.com

https://www.pinterest.com/shadyl717/

Buy Mark

http://bookswelove.net/authors/walters-janet-lane-romance-fantasy-suspense-medical/

Wednesday's Writer's Tip - Craftsmanship Part 4 #MFRWauthor #amwriting

Sometimes showing motivation for a character's particular action can't be done at that point. There can be ways around this. This happens when the viewpoint character isn't the one performing the action. Allow the person through whose eyes the scene is being shown be the one to speculate on what happened. "I wonder if she's thinking about being betrayed before. Those are harsh words." "Is he experienceing pain? that why he's saying those hurtful words?" Now those speculations may or may not be right but they allow the reader to join the speculation and to recall the other reveals about the character being viewed.

Another way when motivation would make for an awkward bit is to have one of the characters ask a question. This will allow the character to provide an answer that hits on motivation. "I won't go to the dance with him." "Why?" She thought marcy was head over heels about Bob. "I'm just his second choice and I'll never be second to anyone." Shows a lot about the character and motivations.

Adverbs are useful tools but used too often muddy the prose. They can become a habit that forms a patters. We've all seen this in dialogue where each character's speech goes something like this. He said laughingly. She sad sadly. He asked hurriedly. You get the picture. Sometimes using one of those ly words is what's needed

So one of the main partsof craftsmanship is being able to find ways to show the characters' motivations in various ways. That took me a long time to learn though sometimes I managed to do this without thinking. Ialso fell for the adverb trap but I've learned to use this like a bit of seasoning.

Motivations and characterization

What drives your characters? Why do they have a particular goal? The answer is their motivation. A character with weak motivations isn't going to charm the reader into turning the pages. Not all the characters in a story will have motivations. The walk-ons won't for they're for a purpose and once they have served that purpose they won't be seen again. The hero, heroine, villain and vital minor characters should have strong motivations. Just what are motivations? A motivation is a reason.

There is the one concerned with self-preservation such as hunger, shelter safety, self-defense.

The need for love in all it's phases such as loyalty, sexual desires, loyalty, pity.

The adoration factor including things as gratitude, awe standards of right and wrong.

The power factor which is the desire to rule someone or many.

The social factor or the need to belong to a group including the herd factor and social considerations.

A character may have more than one of these motivating factors which makes for a complicated character. Usually one is the predominating motivating force that drives your character into action. Mary wants to have a child. John wants to control his spouse. Laura wants to escape the flood and fears for her safety.

Motivation can be shown in a number of ways. By the character's actions. By their speech. By the speech of other characters. By a character's thoughts. By the writer's statement.