MAKE LOVE WITH YOUR CHARACTERS

- Part 2

GMC.

Goal, Motivation, Conflict.

GMC plays an important role in getting to know your characters, but it goes further than that.

Let’s start planning. For this exercise, I will use the hero of my WIP, Prince Kym’rin Rainyll, a man cursed with an evil darkness inside him that waits for the perfect moment to take over his soul.

GMC. Kym’rin’s goal is to ward off the evil for as long as he can. His motivation is because he doesn’t want to be this great evil being. He believes himself to be good. His conflict is that he’s slowly losing the battle with the darkness. Ultimately, he will be faced with the dilemma that the only way to save Anoria, my heroine, is for him to give in to the darkness and lose his soul.

OK. That’s a good start, but not good enough. I like to go three layers deep, or three why’s deep.

Start from the beginning.

Kym’rin wants to keep the darkness at bay. (1) Why? Because he’s a good person. He doesn’t want to be evil. He doesn’t want to lose his soul. (2) Why? Because his father is evil and he hates his father. He doesn’t want to be like his father. He doesn’t want to believe that he’s anything like his sire. Ah… now we’re getting somewhere. We are creating dimension to him. (3) Why? Because he blames his father for the death of his older brother, Alain, and because he witnessed his father murder his mother, whom he was extremely close to. BINGO. We can even go one step deeper. Why? Because he’s hurt and angry that his father never loved him.

That is the core of the subject. It all boils down to emotions. Big, strong emotions. Hurt. Anger. Love. These are powerful emotions.

If you can do this, then you’ve knocked off the goal and motivation already. All that’s left is the conflict. Add some turmoil. Make what your character want most conflict with his/her goal. This is your monkey wrench. You can throw in a few good ones, but for our purpose today, we’ll talk about the BIG one. What does your character have the most to lose?

Kym’rin is faced with a choice. Anoria’s life, or his soul? Which is more important to him? Which matters most to him? Which is the right choice? Is there ever a right choice? In order for you as the writer to figure out what choice your character will make, you have to dig deeper into your character. But why? you might ask. Wasn’t that what we just did?

Yes, and no. Yes, because we did just go deeper into his psyche, but no, because we haven’t gone deep enough. That’s where most writers make their mistake. They have the GMC figured out and leave it there.

What do we know so far about Kym’rin? He doesn’t want to turn evil and lose his soul. So, the choice would be to save his soul, right? Right??

So let’s dig. What are the stakes here?

Kym’rin has been fighting his darkness for thousands of years now. Only once did he let them control him, and that had resulted in his father’s death, right after witnessing his father murder his mother. He was horrified at what he’d done, and at his loss of control. If he gives in now, all those thousands of years of struggling to maintain control over the darkness would have been for nothing. If he gives in, it would mean becoming the one thing he hates most, his father. If he gives in now, it would mean the destruction of his kingdom because nothing will be able to stop the darkness from using him to destroy the kingdom. If he gives in now, it would mean eternal damnation, one of his biggest fears.

Big stakes on that end. So he can’t give in and let the darkness take over and strip away his soul.

OK. Let’s take a look at the other side. If he doesn’t give in to the darkness, it means no chance at saving my heroine’s life, whom he loves utterly and completely.

And therein lies the core conflict of any romance. Love, or self-preservation. This is why writing romance is so fun (and difficult) because our job is to define what we feel the concept of love is. Is it worth eternal damnation? Is it worth facing every single fear you have run from your entire life? Is it worth every sacrifice, any pain, any humiliation? That’s why it is so important to give our main character a partner worthy of that love and sacrifice. Who the other character is will justify whatever decision your main character makes.

Stay tuned for Part Three of “Make Love with Your Characters”, where we will explore just what makes a character worthy of your main character’s love, and the concept of love or self-preservation.

          - Not to be reprinted without author’s permission.