09:51 am - Donald Maass -- Writing the Breakout Novel
Just finished this book. Much of it was variations on stuff I've heard before, but there were some real gems, too. As I was reading it I had several flashes of inspiration for my novel-in-progress.
The most useful tidbit relates to character motivations. Maass suggests taking a scene and asking yourself what the protagonist's motivation is. The answer might be something like "needs to get information from the bad guy" or "trying to stay alive" or "looking for clues to solve the mystery". Now, Maass says, dig deeper. Dig all the way to the fundemental motivations, the ones that sound a bit corny. Deep down, the character may be motivated by the search for truth, or respect for life, or love.
Maass then says to flip it around; make the deep, underlying motivation (as opposed to the immediate goal) the character's most significant motivator during the scene, and see whether he or she behaves differently.
Ooh, I thought. Good idea.
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