Character Motivation

It's a new day and a new session of writing came a long, and this time the writing session left me chopping off the ending of my current manuscript and working on a new outline, because hey, like our lives, our characters’ lives have so many different paths they can take. 

The problem is, after playing around with so many outlines of one’s story, one can begin to wonder, 'Well, which outline is the best outline for the story?' 

Today's discussion will help you navigate changes in story outlines and one key element to pay attention to to help you figure out whether the changes you're making are for the better. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned something about how in my fantasy series, A Royal Life, my characters had kind of changed a script on it again and really flipped a certain scene which had kind of changed the where the story was ending. And I've been working with that, working with that change and kind of feeling it out, what it means for subsequent chapters and just overall the pace and scenes of the story. I'm finding that a lot more changes are going to be happening than I initially thought. It's sort of like I've uncovered something and I've just kind of got myself almost lost in a maze in the sense that there's a lot more twists and turns to the ending of the story than I anticipated, to the point where basically I'm going to have to rewrite most of the ending completely. And it's always funny when this happens because obviously there was the other version of the story already drafted and already planned out. And of course, there was, because this book has been so complicated, there was even a version and outline before that. And so after a while, you sort of start to wonder whether this version of the outline you're creating right now is the right one. And one thing I've come to realize in all this switching and changing and guesswork is that character motivation is really, really important. I've known, I've always known this, but it's really just making itself apparent at the moment with this story and this outline. Because I think sort of like our lives, there's always so many choices and different paths we can take, isn't there? And characters are the same. There's so many different paths and choices they can make, and there's so many different versions of their story technically out there. The ones that end up on the page is just is that particular version of their life ending up on the page. And with that in mind, I think as creators, it's really important to know your characters for one, which I previously spoke about, I think, in the episode called Backstory, but ensuring that the character's motivations is always staying true to their character. So the reason why I'm, I don't want to say comfortably making all these changes to the outline and going with it because I'm not entirely comfortable with it. I'm still kind of like my have my foot on the pedal screeching on the brakes, going, like, guys, are we really going to do this? This is really the best path. But what I'm finding is the more I work with this outline, the more I'm seeing that all the characters' motivations are lining up perfectly. And that to me screams that this outline band is actually the perfect one. Because this book that I have, it has lots of characters involved. It's multiple points of view. There's there's not really a clear main character. I mean, there is at certain points, and I suppose, yes, I could pin it down to who the main character actually is in the story, but because of the big cast around the main characters and that there being so many, I guess, main characters, it means that there's a lot of story threads intertwining and there's a lot of character motivations to account for. And because I like to create characters which are diverse and unique and have different levels of depths, those motivations are obviously going to be very different and in some circumstances clash, like how it appears in real life between two people or even a group of people. You will always see different intentions and motivations clash when you get a group of people together. That's partially what makes group dynamics so tricky. Anyhow, what I've come to really realize in the last week or so is that it's really important to keep in mind your character's motivation and story arc and how their lives thread together through the main story arc. I I definitely will say that with this story Orial Life, I have at times felt like I have bitten off more than I can chew. It is, it's a lot of a story to handle and to weave onto the page. And I've kind of made my peace with that. For years, I kind of almost hated it, but I've learned to just kind of work with it and be like, you know, that is just the monster of the story that it is, and it is just going to be a bit messy and and it's just gonna be a bit of a process where we're taking one step forward and then two steps back, and it is just what it is. So when it comes to making changes to your outline, if you're finding that the outline is changing and the story is changing, because like I said, there is multiple ways any story can go. One key thing to look for is how does the outline and the story align with your character's motivations? Like I I know the story of a royal life from start to finish. I've known it for a very long time, but of course, there's always little bits and pieces that sneak up and appear quite randomly and they fit together so perfectly. It's like they're always meant to be. So I'm just always stoked when you know those pieces fall into place like that. But despite knowing that overarching arc of the storyline, I I have times like this where I'm just like, characters will change things or they'll bring scenes forward, and then it'll sort of unravel a whole new outline of potential that at the beginning I will be very like, I don't know if this is a good idea, but then the more I work with it, the more I keep, you know, brainstorming it and essentially kind of daydreaming around it and really kind of fleshing it out the more that I can kind of see, well, actually, this is probably the most accurate version of the story to land on the page. I mean, the other versions were fine, but you know, and and the story would probably have eventually got there. But this way, this new outline, it just ticks a lot more boxes. And the one thing I'm quite excited about is that it's kind of pushing the other part of the story that needs to come through a lot sooner, which is funny because I had always anticipated that the third book would be covering quite a lot. And then the more I worked on it and the more I saw the work count kind of build up, especially during the first half of the novel that I've been working on for the last two years, the more I kind of started thinking, okay, well, this story is not going to be covering as much as I anticipated. I'm going to have to pull this back. We're going to have to, you know, bring the ending more forward. And I did that once and I've done that twice. And now, right now, I'm looking at just completely changing where the story is ending, and I'm actually adding more into it within a very short period of time of the ending, actually, which is quite unique. Now, in saying all this, I could be making a recording in about two weeks' time and saying, you know what, fuck it. I've had to totally ditch that and go back to another version, or you know, another a new version has appeared. It it is a possibility with this story. It's just bloody pain in the ass that way. And like I said, especially with this book, I've just accepted that nothing is going to stick for long until it's actually like on the page and cemented. And speaking of that, I do want to speak about, you know, a flip side to all this in that when outlines change, when the story takes a little twist that you did not expect as a creator, it does mean that you're generally saying goodbye to solid pieces of writing. I've got a few chapters now that I'll have to completely ditch. I might somehow still be able to weave a bit of them into the new narrative, but fundamentally as a whole, that those pieces of writing, which I've worked hours on over the last few months, will all have to go. And I don't even know what the word count is that I'm ditching at this point. I've just become numbed to the word count and deleting words at this point because I think once you've literally scrolled through your document in one setting and highlighted 20,000 words and just hit delete, you just sort of become numb to that sensation of work being deleted and destroyed in just one button being pressed. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it's emotionally easy to let those parts of the story that I've worked so hard on to just disappear. I mean, that's a funny thing, I think, when you're a channel writer, in the fact that the story is already there and it's just kind of literally channeling through you, is that you still as a creator have an ego and a sense of will and desire and being. And those those parts will conflict with your creation with the channel of the story. And I think this is where a lot of stories actually get ruptured in the fact that people's egos, the creator's ego, does get in the way in saying, Well, no, actually, I want to. Is snoring in the background. Oh my god. Anyway, um, sorry, it was just a very distracting sound behind me. I was like, what is that? And that's my cat. Um I can't believe I'm lowering my voice not to disturb a sleeping cat. Anyway, so what was I saying? Oh, yes, the loss of work and egos. I think it's really important as creators to sometimes acknowledge how hard it can be to switch and change at a moment's notice and say goodbye to good material. I, like I said, I've become immune to the having to delete 20,000 words in one go because usually I do that when I've got to a point where I haven't touched it for months and haven't looked at it, so I don't even know what I'm technically deleting. So it's it's fine to go. But if you're closer to the piece, if you've been working on it like I have recently, it is it can be harder. And I think that's a really valid process to go through as a creator, is that you are essentially saying goodbye to a lot of good material in the name of trying to produce the best story on the page. And I'd like to say that process does get easier, but you know, it is a loss, it is a kind of loss, and I think it's only very human to feel some sort of sting from that loss, even if it seems quite small. In saying that, I do also think there is a bit of a bad habit within us to kind of invalidate losses that are small, as if they're not important. You know, I think sometimes um we see this a lot with I think pets actually. Um, people aren't always very empathetic about someone losing a pet because they're just like it's an animal, but you can never really vouch for what that animal has done for someone. And you know, maybe it is just and going back to writing, you know, maybe it is just a bunch of words on a page and it is a chapter that no one else will probably feel a loss of, but Ice you as a creator, you're allowed to feel that loss. You're allowed to have feelings of loss even for the small things in your life. I think it's actually really important to process those small losses because then when the big losses come along, you won't be so impacted with basically the backlog of small losses. You've denied yourself in feeling, you'll just be able to be present for that big loss that is circulating in your life. And I think that's I think that's why a lot of people actually do find difficult dealing with grief, is that because they don't feel like they have permission to process any sort of grief. And then when we see something disastrous happen in the world, there's always that huge collective grief. And the collective grief isn't generally even about the situation that's unfolded. It's generally people are using that moment to feel all their grief, all the grief that they've never allowed themselves to feel. It's why people really come together in such disasters because people can connect to each other through grief and allow that feeling that they've submerged inside of them to finally come out. It finally has permission to come out as basically a facade of feeling grief for that situation when really it's just a backlog and grief of grief inside of us. I don't know how we have gotten this tangent, but I'm gonna leave it there with just one highlighting point that to keep character motivation really in your mind when writing, which is it's really important and it will help you stay true to the story more so than anything else.