The question that strengthened my character's motivation
And a new basketball-themed PaWriCo challenge to, uh, *slamdunk* my editing (sorry...)
🧠 LEARNING 🧠
The question I asked to fix my character’s motivation — ACTUALLY, the question someone else asked me (thanks, Rain) after I told her about shifts I was making to my main character’s drive.
“What makes my main character think that SHE, of all people, against all odds, has the ability to reach her goal?”
This is especially true in stories where your mc is working toward a goal that feels impossible or risky (like for June, who wants to confront angry goddesses of Fate to get them to stop cursing her family). What does the mc believe makes her different or powerful enough to have a different outcome than everyone else?
For a while I was thinking, well, come on, she has no other choice! Her current situation is so bad that she just HAS to try something different, right?
But that’s not quite strong enough. Because desperate people don’t always fight back. Sometimes they accept reality or give up. There has to be SOMETHING that makes her believe she would succeed — enough to risk it all.
So I chewed this over (had some moments of *ugh it’s hopeless*), talked it over with my husband, chewed it over some more… and eventually, the pieces clicked. I found a better reason why my MC believes she can reach her goal, and it helped pull my whole story together!!!
So I encourage you to —
1) Ask yourself this question for your MC. Fleshing this out will only strengthen your story
2) If you get stuck with a “I don’t know and there’s no possible solution so I should just give up” mindset (not saying I ever get to that point… ahem…), sit with it. Let it simmer, stew, boil, bake… and our little creative brains typically get to some awesome solution in the end. You go, brain.
🎉 CELEBRATING 🎉
I’ve shared here about the writing community that Rain Sullivan (the good-question-asker mentioned above) and I started last August, Pathfinders Writing Collective. Our second challenge, MARCH MADNESS, starts tomorrow!!!
For this challenge, our community has been divided into two teams (Orange Team 🧡and Green Team 💚) - we will see which team can spend the most time writing in the month of March!
Over 170 writers have already signed up and the teams are full of HYPE!!!
My PaWriCo March Madness goal is to do my FINAL rounds of edits before Book 3 (When Death Is Hiding) goes to my editor on April 1st
(Idk why all the office references today)
TONIGHT (Feb 28th) I’ll be hopefully finishing a current line-edit round so that I can start fresh tomorrow with a full beginning-to-ending revision 🤩
If you’re a writer and want some community to help you spend more time writing in March (that’s the whole goal!!), join the fun! Our insta is the best place to get started: @PathfindersWritingCollective. And enjoy our cute mascot, Rico :)
😫 STRUGGLING 😫
The world has been tough these days … which is worth mentioning in my writing newsletter because it affects my writing 😓 if you don’t want to hear my somewhat-political ramblings, scroll on ahead
Seeing such scary power imbalances and inhumane decision making in society creates feelings of helplessness.
As a dystopian writer, I can channel those feelings into my characters, because they face similar challenges in their worlds with oppressive and manipulative government regimes.
But as a human?
… It’s hard feelings to sit with. And even though I can process emotions through writing, the reality is that many of my fellow humans are living in fear. How do we balance staying informed about the world with not feeling completely overwhelmed and hopeless?
I asked my Instagram community for help with finding news-sharing resources that share what’s going on but also share what people, organizations, and activist groups are doing to fight back and make change - because I need that hope!
Here are some Substack resources I was given:
Instagram accounts: amypoehlersmartgirls, thepourovernews, smarthernews, itsthegarbagequeen, sharonsaysso
To wrap up my struggling section, I’ll share a post I put on my therapy instagram page. It’s a quote I heard on a podcast that has stuck with me.
🧘♀️ RESTING 🧘♀️
February was a very social month for me, so I’m going to try to slow down the outings in March and get more alone time. A few fun things:
Kyle and I went to St. Louis to see the Final Fantasy 7 Remake live orchestra concert!
We’re watching Severance season 2 each week, and I’m going to throw us a fun season 2 finale party (for me, Kyle, and our friend who watches it with us) with a bunch of SEVERED foods… idk what they’ll be yet but should be fun to come up with
I read Ace of Spades for the Banned Book Club that arose from #PaWriCo, and it was so good, so tense!!
I finished the Spiderman 2 video game, go spidey go
The weather this week was gorgeous so I went for a walk, which was so refreshing! A light has opened up in my soul!!
Author shout-out!!!
Today I’m featuring my writer friend C.C. Urie and her dystopian books. Aren’t these covers so pretty??
Get to know her series:
Larken Hale is sent to the frontlines after her family abandons her in their attempt to make a political statement. While fighting, Larken learns everything she once knew was wrong, and she has to shoes between doing what’s right, and what’s easy. Defender features several well-loved tropes including: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Found Family, and Chosen One.
Happy almost-March!!