Plot and Character Motivation

August 22, 2014 / Writing Tips / 22 COMMENTS

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraigDeathPaysaVisit_ebook_Final (1)

Sometimes I wonder why I outline at all.  I never seem to stick to them.

In the book that I’m currently writing (already covered, right, since it’s so tricky to reserve cover designers closer to release), I decided a few days ago to change the killer.  If I’d continued on the path I was going with my outline, I thought there would be a good percentage of people who would figure out the murderer before the end of the book.  The suspect that I decided to use instead would be a real surprise and would get me that twisty ending that I wanted.

The problem was…there was no motive at all for this person to have murdered the victim—that’s why the reader was going to be so surprised.

This was an easy enough problem for me to fix. I’d have the killer’s motive trickle in during the story—but not in an obvious way.  There would be clues to the motive…clues that I would have to hastily distract from as soon as I planted them.

But fixing this problem reminded me that believable plots really do all come down to motive.  Even in other genres.

If our characters act out of character to force a particular storyline, the plot is weaker.

We can enrich our stories by asking what drives each character—what they want most.  That’s what motivates them to do all sorts of things: keep secrets, avoid other characters, argue,  flirt, save money, spend money.  Character driven stories sometimes feel as if they write themselves.

So if we find we’re manipulating a character to serve the plot, that’s when we need to sit down and figure out how to make the character’s motive in line with where we want the plot to go. Or be open to considering a plot change.

Often, it’s not a tough edit to make.  I think it took only about thirty minutes to think up and then slip in the clues to the character’s motive and true nature to the plot. That’s not long to fix something that big.

How do you keep on track with character motivation?  Have you ever had to alter a book to make a story align with motive?

  1. Elizabeth – I think you’re right that it’s all about motive. Once you find out what drives a character – what matters to that character – then you can make that character so much more believable. Everything from dress to dialogue to eating habits to relationships falls out of our motivations. Funny you’d discuss this too, because I was facing the same questions about a character in my own WIP. I had to really think about what her motivations are before I could write her credibly.

    1. Margot–So many good points you’re making here. The way they dress and speak ties into it…their jobs, whether they attend religious services. And so important for mystery writers, as we are. If the motive isn’t credible, if the suspects aren’t believable, the whole plot can feel forced.

    1. Alex–And character-driven plots are my favorite types of stories.

      It was pretty easy to add in, actually. Made a list of motives that fit in with the character’s background, found a favorite, found clues to indicate the motive, slid them into the story.

  3. That’s good you were able to fix it so easily without a major re-write.

    When I do characterization sessions with kids, I focus on the character’s goals. Because what the character wants, his or her dreams, will often be what stokes and creates the story.

  4. Your first point: outlining is part of the story discovery phase, whether you use what’s in the outline or not. Better a 3-page outline you deviated from than a 233-page first draft you had to eviscerate.

    Since all my books, fiction and nonfiction, are veiled attempts at psychoanalyzing you humans my fellow humans, everything I write is driven by who these people are. The ending of A Long, Hard Look was a surprise to me, until I wrote it. Not solving the murder; that’s easy, and in my mysteries, inconsequential. But the final choices the characters make about their relationships: I honestly thought it would turn out differently. But as I got to know these people, it would have been phone and trite to shoehorn them into a different ending.

    1. Joel–Absolutely! At least I have a blueprint. If I go off from it, I go off…but I know the direction I’m heading in.

      You were good to allow your plot in Long, Hard Look to be character-driven. You’re so right–it makes for such a better story that way.

  6. Hi Elizabeth – I just admire how efficient you organise things .. and how you’re able to advise us of your process … and thirty minutes is pretty good going. Motive and the characters’ goals … fascinating to read up about .. cheers Hilary

    1. Hilary–Honestly, it’s really easy to do, if you’ve got a (nearly) finished draft. You just sort of weave it into different spots in the story in as an innocuous way as possible.

  7. Interesting contrast. I write thrillers which are pre-crime or mid-crime, where mysteries are post-crime. So, I start with the bad guy.

    I think up who he/she is and his/her motivation. Before I write an outline, I write a quick timeline of the bad guy’s plan (case the bank, put together a crew, rob bank, make a getaway, etc). Then I figure out where our heroine crosses this timeline, upsetting the bad guy’s plan and trying to stop it. That starting point might work for your mysteries as a background exercise.

    I love what you said “Character driven stories sometimes feel as if they write themselves”. That makes a ton of sense.

    Peace, Seeley

    1. Seeley–I think that would definitely be a fun exercise for me, since I haven’t written a story like that before. That assumes that I do know who the killer is–which means that I need to have a better feel for my story than I did this time around (since I changed mine about 3/4 of the way through). But I really like the idea behind that to see what the killer is thinking, doing, and deflecting during the process.

  8. Elizabeth–
    Motive, motive, motive–I agree completely. One problem I’ve run into, however, is applying motivation so thoroughly that actions become symptoms. The effect is to offer so much development for characters that I slow the narrative. I actually had to significantly reduce the development of one of my character’s motives, in order to speed things up. But as you say, it will never do to have a character’s actions come out of nowhere.

    1. Barry–You’re right–so easy to be heavy-handed in the other direction and with lots of exposition. Can drag down the pace and, with mysteries, point to the suspect in a way that we’re trying to avoid. I had to really sneak it in and then quickly distract from it to preserve the killer’s identity.

  9. Yup, motive is king. When I find my characters getting away with me (either in my plays or the novel I’m working on), I always look back to their motives.

  11. It’s amazing how our writer brains work when we realize something isn’t working, and it shows us that, and then helps us figure out the way to fix it!

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