Anna DeStefano's Blog

Last week, we had a great discussion about motivation. How it takes more than basic plotting to get your protagonist believably through his or her scenes. She can’t  just be doing things. The reader must identify with why she’s doing what she’s doing. Her motives. Her goals. What’s stopping her from getting where she needs to go. Make that come alive on the page, and you’ve got yourself a plot, a story, that a reader won’t be able to stop reading.

But how do you develop motivation on such a deep level? Since it’s Wednesday, Jenni’s taking the reins of this How We Write tangent over on her blog. I’m sure she’ll be nice. I mean, maybe there will be a bit of snark and revenge in her post, after I used one of her manuscripts as my example last week. But I’m a big girl. I can take it ;o)

Seriously, she’s talking more about the brainstorming we did together while she was reworking her work-in-progress, and you don’t want to miss it.  Today, you’ll hear what happened AFTER we broke through and she started discovering why her protagonist was doing all the dark, driven things she was on the page. (more…)

What does it take to go beyond the basic description of a character’s goal, motivation and conflict and make their deepest desires and fears come to life on the page? Brainstorming and critiquing with someone who knows your writing and is willing to put time into helping you dig down to the heart of your story is a highly recommended approach. And since Jenni and I are talking all things critiquing and brainstorming on How We Write Wednesdays, let’s take a closer look at how we’ve done that a time or two (BTW, check out the list of upcoming topics at the end of this post for the skinny on what we’ll be talking about next).

In each of our HoWW posts, we’ll start with the simple, then dig a little deeper–which, you’ll soon notice, is Jenni’s and my overall paradigm for growing your craft and asking other hard-working writers for their take on your work. You can always dig just a little deeper.

Pretty much anyone can understand the basic terms and techniques that fiction writers work with. There are countless experts to remind you what motivation is. There are great books to read. You can even take a class or two. But until you try to weave the concept of motivation into your characters and their stories, you can’t really understand how complicated and convoluted it can become, moving a character through a range of actions and emotions and the challenges of a tightly plotted story. Turns out…this writing thing isn’t so simple after all.

So, basic motivation is the following: (more…)

As promised last Wednesday, Jenni’s charging ahead with our “tag you’re it” How We Write Wednesday blog experiment over on her site, talking about the creative side of writing and how the two of us often challenge (and annoy the heck out of) each other the times we get a chance to brainstorm and revise.

I’ve covered the basics of what we’re trying to do with this thread already–see here (I promise I’m done with the links now…almost).From there, consider us an experiment in progress challenging ourselves to share some the meatier, more in-depth stuff that happens once you’re writing on contract and on deadline and trying to score that next contract and grow your “published” creative process more with each book. Because once you’re published, it ALL makes sense, right?

Uh, no.

Not by a long shot.

Over the next few months, once a week on alternating blogs, we’ll cover the stuff beyond line editing and proof reading.The stuff you don’t hear about every day that just might help your journey to publishing fiction and beyond not be as bumpy as ours. Well, probably not. It’s all bumpy, each of us in our own “special” way. But maybe it’ll be nice to know, when you get there, that you’re not losing your mind once you experience for yourself that the reality of being published is worlds different than you thought it would be.

So, dive in over at Jenni’s. Let us know what you think, here or there. Then come back next Wednesday for more…here…because we’re trading back and forth, you see…the way brainstorming and revision works…just to beat the obvious symbolism to death a bit more ;o)

Oh, and I’m posting December contest winners in just a bit (thanks everyone who’s emailed to say you’re keeping an eye out) as well as new January chances to win. So come back here, too, to see if you’re one of the lucky ducks who’ll be receiving books or gift certificates in the mail soon!