Wants and Needs

I've been blogging about how to write more literarily, but this is more of a basic concept.  It's that every character, large or small, that enters the stage of your narrative needs a motivation, especially the important ones.  How many people do you know who do things for no reason?  In reality, it may happen.  However, generally, people in real life do everything they do for some reason.  If you have a man standing on the street corner, but he doesn't seem to go anywhere or do anything, what's the purpose of even mentioning him?  A character's motivation may be selfish or selfless or anything in between.  These desires and drives shape the story as characters act on them.

It helps to heighten the drama of a story if those wants are at odds, and even more so if what drives the character is different then what others or even they, themselves, think..  Let's look at Jane Austen's Emma, for example.  Emma pushes Harriet into a fake relationship with Elton.  Why?  Because she wants to feel pride in a match well made.  The relationship doesn't work because Elton's motivation for all he does (spoiler alert) is to impress Emma, and Harriet's motivation is eagerness to please.  No one in this situation is motivated by love in this "love match," so drama ensues.  If Emma's desire had been true concern and love for a friend, Elton's had been love for Harriet, and Harriet's had been love for Elton, as in the fiction Emma paints for herself in her imagination, there would have been no drama.

Shakespeare's Hamlet is all about characters trying to read each other's opposing motivations.  The spirit of Hamlet's late father pushes him to take revenge on his murderous uncle.  His uncle watches Hamlet to read his motivation, even while Hamlet returns the favor.  Hamlet plays the fool while searching his soul and those around him for a motivation and drive to obey his father's will.  Ophelia gives up the fight toward trying to read Hamlet and takes herself out of the narrative.  The tension of the story is in the reading and misreading of others as they all struggle toward a resolution.

Sometimes, a motivation can be short-term, as in for just one scene.  Harry Potter's need to solve the riddle of the golden egg in the fourth book drives just one section of the book.  That drive conflicts with his desire to deal with other issues around him, so this motivation gets put off until others spell out how to solve the mystery.  The motivation of his seeming-ally, though at first appears altruistic, ends up bringing on the true danger and climax of the book.  Although Harry's motivation is temporary and not even that strong, that of his unseen enemy carries him through to the end in a way that is critical to the story arc of not just the book but the entire series. Motivations can vary in strength and conflict with each other, even in the same story and character, but all of them need to be believable to the reader.

What are your characters' most basic motivations?  What do they want?  Look at both the broad plot and individual scenes to figure out if the motivations are clear to the reader, even if they aren't to the characters.  Are there places that characters confusing each others'--or even their own--motivations could heighten the drama?

Verbing Nouns

I've been blogging about writing in a literary fashion.  This one is more about how to write in a modern literary fashion.  Once upon a time, if a writer wanted to get expressive, they'd say it with adverbs.  "Adverbs!" said the character observantly.  That style doesn't work with modern literature.

Writing with passive tenses, spicing it up with adverbs, is now considered a sign of novice writing.  Editors advocate using "said," "asked," or "yelled" then a short dialogue tag, possibly including action since dialogue tags should practically disappear.  Interesting verbs should take the place of adverbs wherever possible--outside of dialogue tags--and adverbs should all but disappear.  "Adverbs are a no go," George said, stomping his foot.  Writing this way tends to be more punchy and powerful.

Many writers take potent, brief writing one step further by changing a noun into a verb to create something new.  This is a form of what's officially called "anthimeria."  If you googled for information, hashtagged a post, eBayed your old stuff, friended someone on FaceBook, or YouTubed your video, you're already verbing nouns.  Some of these usages, like the above, enter the language and become permanent.

This technique can be used in writing to make your voice unique. The comic Calvin and Hobbes says, "Verbing weirds language," thereby showing how this is done with not one but two words in a unique way.  But "weirding" language also freshens it.  This has been done over the years, such as when Jane Austen in Emma writes, "Let me not suppose that she dares go about, Emma Woodhouse-ing me!" A reader of the book knows this verbed noun references matchmaking.  Even Shakespeare occasionally did this such as in King Lear,  "The thunder would not peace at my bidding." This is not a new technique. 

However, verbing nouns has become more common in modern writing, and it makes writing sound fresh and unique.  Kate Daniels, for instance, used it in In the Marvelous Dimension with the line, "Until then, I'd never liked petunias, their heavy stems, the peculiar spittooning sound of their name."  The word "spittoon" has become a verb/adjective instead of a noun.  In The Lamorna Wink, Martha Grimes writes about a character who "was marmalading a scone."  Verbing nouns cuts out possibly unnecessary words and gets right to the point in a fresh way. 

Now read through your writing.  Where have you used adverbs?  Is there a noun or even a verbed noun you can use there instead to make your writing powerful and fresh?  Best of luck using this technique. 

The Importance of Reading

It's been said many times, but I'll say it again: read what you want to write.  If you want to write like Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, J.K.Rowling, or anyone else, read.  You can read as many blogs, as many how-to books, as many guides as you want, but the best way to really get to know your genre is to read it.  If you're a poet, immerse yourself in poetry.  If you want to be a poet, but you're reading historical romance, the wrong voice is likely to rub off on your writing. 

I find my voice best when I'm reading books that have the voice I want to emulate. If I'm writing a romance, my work is at its best when I have recently read a string of romances along the lines of what I want to write.  If I want to write profound literary fiction, I should sink deeply into the world of literary fiction to get a sense of how they do it.  If I want to write light and humorous fiction, that's exactly what I should read.  My young adult fiction is at its best when I've just read Rick Riordan, Harry Potter, and others that have a unique style.  No matter what genre I wish to write in, it's always best when I read books like those I want to write.  What are you writing?  Go find something like it, o you have a sense of how to do it.  Then, you'll know comparable pieces when it's time to publish.