Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

character motivation

75+ Ways to Make Things Tough on a Character

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No story goes along smoothly for the main character. In fact, how they respond to adversity is how we get attached to the people in the novels we love. If they don’t struggle to get what they need, we won’t want to read to the end. There are innumerable ways for conflict to occur in a story.  I’ve listed the 75 I’ve come across in my or another author’s writing.

1. Everything has been working fine, until now.
2. The best friend is disloyal/undermining/lying
3. They aren’t his parents
4. The power goes out
5. The car beaks down
6. What she thought she knew is wrong
7. Injury
8. Attack
9. Not everyone made it to the agreed upon site
10. What was safe once is no longer safe
11. Supplies are lost or stolen
12. Weather change
13. Ambush
14. The character’s arrival is expected
15. The character’s arrival is unexpected
16. Sibling jealousy
17. Paralyzing fear
18. The parameters are changed
19. She refuses to go
20. Misplaced information
21. Locked door/cabinet/safe
22. Locked out of the city/house/business
23. Sabotage
24. Time is running out
25. He gets lost
26. Incorrect assumption
27. Malfunction
28. Loss of food supplies
29. Dangerous terrain
30. It is believed impossible
31. House burns down
32. Loss of parents/family
33. Loss of faith
34. Poison/illness/plague
35. Arriving late/early
36. Flight/bus/train cancelled
37. The store is closed
38. Misplaced keys/ticket/passport/spell/identification
39. Difficult terrain
40. Battery runs out
41. Old injury/illness flairs
42. Toothache/pink eye/infection
43. Curiosity
44. An immovable object
45. Prejudice
46. Mugged
47. Lost luggage
48. Missing vital ingredient/material
49. Lacks a skill/knowledge
50. A telegram/email/missive/letter
51. Inheritance
52. Loss of fortune
53. Ostracized/disowned/ignored
54. Waking up to a major change
55. Loss of memory
56. A misunderstanding
57. Death of a loved one
58. A major decision
59. Uncertainty
60. Phobias
61. A tool/skill/talent/gift has special powers, but the character can’t figure out how to work it
62. War
63. The craft is spinning out of control
64. The world is coming to an end
65. The phone/communication device goes dead
66. Someone has released the dogs/lion/critters with unfriendly intent
67. Things just don’t look/smell/feel/sound right
68. The other character would not normally say that
69. An unfamiliar vehicle has parked outside and the people in it appear to be watching the house/business
70. S/he won’t/doesn’t answer the phone
71. Heart-broken
72. Lack of confidence
73. Impatience
74. Tied up/trapped
75. supernatural/unnatural change of self/enemy/friend/general population (i.e., Zombies)
UPDATE to list provided by Marcy Peska.
76.  curses and other magical obstacles 
77. trolls
under bridges
78. gastric distress from eating too many
sugar-free candies
79. small and uncooperative children
80. hobbits too
interested in mushrooms and second breakfast
81. abrupt changes in mental
status/consciousness
82. being unable to act effectively due to being
grounded or having to go to work. [?] 
83.  Oh…and having a small bladder which requires frequent bathroom breaks. [?]

If you are a writer or a reader, you are aware of many conflicts that characters have faced. What  conflicts have your favorite characters faced? What other conflicts can you add to this list.

#conflict
#plot
#writing

The variety of the story beginning — 57 and counting

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start with something & keep writing

What better post to discuss beginnings on than In the beginning….  Where to start the story?

  1. Start with any word that comes to mind — the beginning is just that: a place to start.
  2. a character talking to another character
  3. the character talking to the reader
  4. the character talking to the self
  5. start when things went wrong
  6. start when things finally went right
  7. begin with the ending
  8. begin with an argument
  9. describe an image
  10. the main character meets someone new
  11. a favor is called in
  12. start with an article of clothing and have your character put it on
  13. describe what the main character sees
  14. describe a smell
  15. start with a cup of coffee, a glass of juice, a piece of toast
  16. have him place groceries down before the cashier
  17. describe everything but the visual in a scene
  18. start with a woman crying
  19. start with a man laughing
  20. a fretful child
  21. blow something up
  22. knock something over
  23. land a plane with difficulty
  24. have the car skidding out of control
  25. drive around the circle of a town’s central square looking for a parking spot
  26. stand up from being knocked down
  27. have the cat licking its paw seated next to a severed hand
  28. roll up a garden hose, water spraying everywhere
  29. wake up to the sound of a dog barking 
  30. have him pack his clothes into a grocery bag
  31. the family scrambles to exit a house when a car pulls into the driveway because it is not their house
  32. pull a ticket from beneath the windshield wiper
  33. a stack of papers on the desk,and an empty out-box
  34. run out of staples and cry about it
  35. the chair leg breaks
  36. pick at a sore
  37. dye her hair another color and put on clothes that don’t quite fit
  38. a pipe burst in freezing weather
  39. the car breaks down 500 feet from the entrance to the drive way
  40. the car loses power while your character is driving down the highway
  41. lock their keys in the car
  42. the character checks every day under the car for rattlesnakes.  One day one is coiled beneath.
  43. step in a mudpuddle
  44. step off the curb and be struck by a bicyclist
  45. set a stone in a cobbled walkway
  46. draw money from the bank
  47. the loan goes through
  48. go looking for a new car
  49. quit his job
  50. walk away
  51. run away from something dangerous
  52. run away from someone who loves her
  53. break a promise 
  54. bury a pet
  55. talk to God, tell him how things are going since last the two talked
  56. ask your character a question and write down what she answers
  57. have your character describe someone he doesn’t like

Semicolons and colons: easier than you think

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Write down these simple rules.

Colons and semicolons are probably the most misused punctuation there is, and it is not because they are complicated.  The rules for the semicolon and the colon are both few and easy.

To make things simple, let’s establish some terminology.  Sentences are words placed in sequence with a capital letter at the start, end punctuation at the end and a complete thought in the middle.
Examples:  
I cried.
I cried buckets of tears that flowed down my face, dropping off my chin in rhythmic pats on my slacks.
Before I cried buckets of tears that flowed down my face, dropping off my chin in rhythmic pats on my slacks, I visited my father’s grave.

All of these are sentences.  Each one of them contains an independent clause which can stand alone.  I have underlined the part of the sentence which is the independent clause.

So when I refer to a sentence, I mean the whole kit and caboodle.   When I say independent clause, I mean the part that has a complete thought and can stand alone.  Now let’s talk about these rules.

SEMICOLON:

Rule #1
Use semicolons to combine independent clauses that are highly related.
Examples:
Dogs are the ideal companion; they will forgive their owner just about anything.

Mondays I remind myself the week will be over before I know it; I don’t always believe myself.

Rule #2
Use semicolons in lists of items that have internal punctuation.

First I will show you a list with the standard “items in a series” comma in use.
Example: I dropped by my neighbor to ask for two cups of sugar, two cups of flour and a pat of butter.

Look what happens when I add some details to my list.

Example with internal punctuation: I dropped by my neighbor to ask for two cups of sugar, one brown, one white; two cups of flour; and a pat of butter.
I needed the semicolons because I added information regarding the sugar that needed to be separated from the flour.  The information added would have become part of a list of items, and a rather unclear list at that.  It only takes one addition of internal punctuation to require the semicolons to be present, and they follow through the entire list.

Rule #3
Use semicolons when combining clauses with conjunctive adverbs and transitional expressions.
Examples:
Conjunctive adverb – I intended to get home before my husband to organize his birthday party; however, he left work early.
Transitional expression – My husband thought I was planning a surprise birthday party; on the contrary, I was much too exhausted to contemplate the endeavor.

COLON:


Rule #1
Use a colon after independent clauses when what follows is an appositive, a list or a quotation.
Examples
Appositive – There are days of the week when I can’t wait for the weekend: Monday thru Friday.
List style #1 – There are three things I must remember to buy: potatoes, red food coloring, and a bandana.
List style #2 – You must bring the following to the senior parade float party: potatoes, red food coloring and a bandana.  (The word “following” is a clear hint.)
Quotation – Who hasn’t heard of Hamlet’s famous quote: “To be or not to be, that is the question”?

Rule #2
Use a colon after independent clauses when what follows is an explanation or summary.
Examples
My brother can be such a ninny: he told my new boyfriend I was allergic to flowers when I am actually only allergic to carnations, and he brought me roses.

Rule #3
Use a colon after the salutation in a formal letter.
So not for the following:
Dear Aunt Sally,

But after the following:
Dear Mayor Sindsey:
How bad is that?  Three simple rules each.  The key is knowing when you are dealing with independent clauses, which I underlined in each sentence.

Characterization, Star Trek and life challenges

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Star Trek, Next Generation is one of my favorite shows, and my husband and I have been watching an episode every night while we eat dinner as we work our way through the seasons the show aired.  The early ones were still working on depth, characterization and purpose, but after the third year, the show got its legs under it.  I can view the same episode again and again and enjoy the interactions of characters that are distinctly different, driven by motivations individual and evolving.  What captures my attention most are the shows which focus on particular characters and their growth facing distressing or challenging situations.

Tonight we are watching the episode which has Captain Picard trying to understand why he left the ship.  As a second Picard arrives in a shuttle craft that is from six hours in the future, the original Picard wonders what would cause him to choose leaving the Enterprise when the result was the total destruction of the ship.  He is angry at the second Picard for leaving and surviving.  It causes him to question his integrity as a captain and his responsibility to his crew.

In the life of any individual, events take place which force one to evaluate, re-evaluate and respond to situations.  We question our choices based on our desires and attempt to see ourselves as truly as we can.  How we answer ourselves, how we evaluate our choices forces us to grow as people.  Characters we create must grow as well, question their choices based on their understanding of the reasons which caused them to select those choices.

This is the challenge I love to work on when I write.  It is also what causes me the most doubt.  It generates questions that I must answer if I want to understand what sort of growth is potentially possible in my characters.  Looking at characterization forces me to stay aware of the process of growth in my characters.

In the first book of my series, the main character Brent Garrett from the start was driven by his perception of his mother’s expectations.  A part of me was always uncomfortable with this fact about him.  Why so driven by his mother’s attempts to control and inspire his life choices?  He’s a grown adult and should be past any dependency on what his mother wishes him to accomplish.  But that is only one part of his story just as our own lives are replete with challenges.  We don’t get them one at a a time.  He doesn’t either.  Still I had to examine my discomfort with his difficulties in order to understand his.

So when I look at my own life and consider the things that have driven my actions, I must confess that the loss of my mother when I was an infant played a strong factor in my wanting to emulate her.  And it had an even stronger influence on my efforts to make sure my father was proud of me.  At one point in my teenage life, I became aware that he gained me shortly before he lost his wife, my mother.  I did not stand a chance of replacing her.  I could only hope he would find my efforts to be the best I could adequate.

When I reached adulthood, I found that every time I visited my father, he attempted to place me back in a childhood role.  It wasn’t until I had been married several years, spent numerous phone calls learning about his experience watching my mother die over a six month period while playing both father and mother to two small children that we grew beyond the loss together.  I hadn’t seen him in four years, though we had talked on the phone regularly.  When I came to visit, it was to find he had suffered a heart attack while I was traveling the 1200 miles to get to my parents’ home (he had remarried).  He was in the hospital and his perspective had gone through a tremendous change. 

The challenges I had gone through entering and growing in adulthood and his own brush with death had caused us both to change, to make new choices and to see ourselves and others in new ways.  So Brent had a perception of himself governed by his mother’s expectations and desires for his “success.”  Through book 1 and book 2 of my series Students of Jump, Brent reached adulthood and whether his mother was ready for him to grow beyond her wishes or not, he did.  Picard worked to understand the choices the second Picard made, and my father and I climbed over the wall that had divided us, interfering with our view of ourselves and our understanding of each other.

Yeah, that is what I like about writing — seeing characters evolve as questions are generated and answered.  And evolving myself along the way.

Sometimes one needs a MacGuffin, at least to start with

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the sword in the graveyard
You know how there are words that we just love to say or write?  Some of my favorites are frikasee, mimsy, bailiwick, and conniption though they are rather hard to find a place for in my writing.  But one I have found usable is MacGuffin.  This word is a tool used in writing, and I  love the way it rolls off the tongue.   It’s fun and useful.  However,  the MacGuffin has earned some bad press.  Some writers for movies, novels, short stories use them simply to start the plot off and then completely leave them behind.  But when used properly, this tool can provide motivation for a character to get involved in some action and can still resurface where it can provide depth and deeper connections later. 
Mystery novels often use MacGuffins to embroil the characters in a
mystery.  Spy novels also can make use of the MacGuffin.  Basically the
character is chasing something that may not really exist:  the fountain
of youth, courage, grandpa’s missing will, microfilm with the schematics for a satellite laser beam.  Or they do find it, and it is not of value any more.  I was thinking about this word yesterday and realized I used a version of this tool in both the first and second books of my Students of Jump series. 
In the first book In Times Passed, Brent is searching for independence so he jumps into the past.  His desire to get away from
his mother’s manipulation instigate the decision.  But once he is there, this is no longer a
motivating feature of the actions that follow.  What started out important  becomes unimportant.  That is the nature of a MacGuffin.  (Of course, I plan to make use of this issue between Brent and his mother in a later work in the series.)
In the second book No-time Like the Present, Misty wants to face her father and demand he tell her why he
abandoned her.   When the opportunity arrives, she takes it.  But what motivates Misty initially is not a central feature
of her growth or the more important goals she really wants but didn’t think she could have: a relationship with her father and saving her
mother.  It is at best an excuse she gives
herself to see her father.  She claims to
have no interest in him, but is in fact obsessed with knowing him.  Escaping manipulation and high expectations or desiring one’s father explain why he made the choices he made are the MacGuffins which motivate them to take a step into a place they do not understand but need to go.
What MacGuffins have you identified in works you have read or works you have written

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