How to Write a Brilliant Novel: The Easy Step-By-Step Method of Crafting a Powerful Story (Go! Write Something Brilliant) Read Online Free PDF Page B

access to this sub. His motivation is his family, keeping them safe.
     
    Knowing a person’s identity helps us define their goals, and also reveals the means we can use to destroy them.
     
    Just for fun, let’s create a character and walk him through his identity. We’ll call him Joe the Drifter.
     
    What kind of person defines himself as a drifter?
    Maybe someone who has a hard time putting down roots? Avoids commitment? Why?
Maybe he grew up in a broken home?
Maybe he had a commitment, a family, and saw it destroyed.
How?
Maybe something happened in the family.
    Like what? Maybe a loss of a job, or what if it involved an unexpected pregnancy, a child with physical challenges? What if his parents had a child with special needs, and it was too much for his father, so he left them? What if his mother is left with raising Joe’s brother by herself, and she struggles financially and emotionally with his care?
    How has that shaped Joe? He’s learned that families with children who have unexpected challenges might not stay together. What if that condition was genetic? That would make Joe iffy about a relationship and commitment. He’d be afraid of this same thing happening to him. It would keep him from settling in too deep. What other components go into being a drifter? Maybe Joe likes adventure and new challenges. Maybe he’s good at fitting in, at solving problems, at being a temporary savior.
    The key is to keep asking why, until you get to the underlying motivations of your character’s identity.
    Once you’re there, it’s not too hard to discover the three things that will drive your plot and give your character resonance.
    Identity helps you define:
    Your character’s values
    Your character’s greatest fears Your character’s greatest dream
    Values: These are the things that Joe desires, whether he has them or not. They are the longings that drive his actions. For example, because of his past, Joe values trust and family. Although his trust in relationships was destroyed, he needs them, and he yearns for the family he lost.
    Knowing your character’s values makes for excellent internal conflict. And here’s the key: Pitting a character’s values against each other makes for great character angst. For example, let’s take Joe: If his values are trust and family, then he’s going to do what it takes to earn someone’s trust, and value that. Likewise, he’s going to protect the family he has—his mother and brother. But, what if those two values were pitted against each other? What if he had to sacrifice the trust of someone in order to protect his family? Or sacrifice his family to earn the trust of someone he cared about? Makes for good inner conflict.
    It also leads to mannerisms and ancillary info rmation. Like why Joe might carry a picture of his family in his glove compartment, or have a soft spot for kids, making him volunteer at a children’s shelter. Perhaps, also, he’d be secretive about all this, not wanting people to know about him.
    Knowing your character’s values and motivations helps you create inner conflict.
    Discovering your character’s greatest fear and greatest dream will help you define the external conflict.
    Let’s return to Joe’s identity: Drifter
    Knowing his past and his motivations, what would be Joe’s greatest fear? What if his greatest fear was to be in a relationship that went bad? And what if it went bad in the same way his parents’ did—by having a child with special needs? That fear will keep him drifting, and out of relationships.
    But will his greatest fear be greater that his greatest dream? His greatest dream also stems from his identity, and it is probably being a family again. What if his dream is to put his family back together, and even more, have someone love him more than his father did—someone who would stick by him even if the worst happened?
    We now have components to begin creating our plot. Joe’s motivation, Joe’s values, Joe’s