Goal, Motivation, and Conflict by Shirley Martin

    

In her excellent how-to book, Debra Dixon refers to Goal, Motivation, and Conflict as the building blocks of fiction. What does your protagonist want? (Goal.) Why does she want it? (Motivation.) What prevents her from attaining her goal? (Conflict.) In planning a novel or novella, its a good idea to flesh out your characters, create well-rounded people with an outer and inner GMC. 

   
 My historical romance, "Forbidden Love," centers around an actual event, the Homestead Steel Strike of 1892. My heroine, Lisa, is an only child of well-to-do parents, living in an affluent neighborhood on the outskirts of Pittsburgh. When Lisa's father dies, he leaves his widow and daughter with many debts, on the verge of poverty. This circumstance leads to Lisa's outer GMC.  

Goal: (What does she want?) To pay off their debts, work for a living if she must.

Motivation: (Why?) To save her widowed mother from poverty

Conflict: What keeps her from attaining her goal?) Lisa lacks ready skills. Her mother is irresponsible and doesn't realize their dire situation. She is disdainful of Lisa's frugality and fearful of neighbors' opinions if Lisa must earn a living.

    
When William, a wealthy stockbroker, offers Lisa marriage, she accepts, even though she doesn't love him. She sees the marriage as a means to save her mother from poverty, else it would be necessary to sell the family home.

    
Now we see Lisa's inner GMC. As the name implies, an inner GMC is emotional, from deep inside.

Goal: To learn to love William.

Motivation: She wants children, wants to have a happy marriage.

Conflict: William is a philanderer and spurns her efforts.

   
Lisa belongs to a literary club, and there she meets Owen. Immediately drawn to him, she fights her attraction, still hoping she will come to love William and hoping to achieve a happy marriage. But William continues to spurn her advances, apparently satisfied with a loveless marriage and needing Lisa only as a trophy wife.

    
Here we see that a protagonist's goals can change throughout one's story. Indeed, your hero/heroine may have more than one goal.

Trapped in a loveless marriage and falling in love with Owen, Lisa's outer GMC changes. 

Goal: To be free of her marriage.

Motivation: Lisa is deeply in love with Owen, and William has become a heartless husband.

Conflict: William won't grant her a divorce.

    

Now what about Owen?  He's a steelworker, literally from the wrong side of the tracks. He lives in Homestead, a dirty steel town across the river from Pittsburgh. Owen has aspirations; he wants to better himself, the reason why he joined the literary club. What does his outer GMC look like?

Goal: To get out of the steel business. He wants to attend the university and become a civil engineer.

Motivation: He wants to escape the brutality of the steel mill, where the temperature can reach 130 degrees, and the noise can drive a man crazy.
Conflict: College is expensive and money is tight. He knows that a strike is imminent at the Homestead mill and will lead to a further depletion of his savings.

    
Deeply attracted to Lisa, he realizes she's a married lady and far above his station. With no way of knowing otherwise, he assumes she's happily married and that her husband loves her very much. So what is his inner GMC?

Goal: To forget his love for Lisa, drive her from his mind.

Motivation: Because she's married to another man.

Conflict: He can't drive her from his mind. He loves her too deeply.

    

Throughout "Forbidden Love" Lisa's and Owen's relationship develops and grows, their love becoming more intense. Owen learns of William's perfidies, his failure to take Lisa as a true wife. Now Owen's outer GMC matches Lisa's. 

Goal: To make Lisa his wife.

Motivation: He can no longer fight his love for her.

Conflict: William refuses to release Lisa from their marriage.

   
Before you begin a novel/novella, it's a good idea to create GMC charts, outer and inner, for your protagonists. And make sure you have plenty of conflict!

"Historical romance at its finest," Julie Bonello at eCataRomance

"Nothing less than a masterpiece", 5 Angels at Fallen Angel Reviews

http://amzn.com/B007EZF6S0

To find more of Shirley Martin's romance novels, please go to  
http://bookswelove.net/martin.php

A Few Lines From...Shirley Martin

This week, a few lines from Wolf Magic by Shirley Martin. 

(This scene takes place after the heroine
 has been jailed for stealing.)

He reached her cell and–
Annwn?
Shock rendered him speechless, his throat dry. His heart pounded wildly.
Sitting on the floor, she held her shift in clawed hands, her arms and legs covered with fur. Her face red with shame, she turned away from him. He heard her sobs, saw her trembling.
This is Annwn?
He clenched his hands, fighting for control. Helpless to do anything, he could only stare. He discarded his shock; his heart turned over with love and pity for her.

http://bookswelove.net/martin.php

www.shirleymartinauthor.com

Juliet Waldron is next on July 16

A Date with a Vampire

 

by Shirley Martin

 

    Suppose you meet a vampire at a party, and you know he's one of the undead.  Now suppose he asks you for a date. Would you say (1) I never date vampires, (2) Let me think about it, or (3) Your place or mine?

    Within the last few decades, vampires have been portrayed as real sex symbols, handsome and debonair. But it wasn't always so. Centuries ago, people actually believed in vampires, creatures shown to be ugly and desiccated. In eastern Europe, especially, people dug up graves of anyone suspected of being one of the undead and drove a stake through the heart or burned the corpse. 

    All of that changed with the publication of Bram Stoker's "Dracula" in 1897. Now the vampire was portrayed as being more, well, human. At the time of its publication, "Dracula' didn't garner the fame that later years brought to the novel. Yet Stoker's novel set the standard for vampires that would last for years.

    With Anne Rice's publication of "Interview with a Vampire" the bloodsucker underwent yet another incarnation, this time as a troubled, introspective hero.  And since then, we have seen an absolute plethora of novels and movies centered around the undead. Now, we see the vampire as a sexy, romantic hero, one any woman would die for.

    In my contemporary vampire romance, "One More Tomorrow" my heroine, Stephanie (Stevie) doesn't at first realize that the man she has fallen in love with is a vampire. Imagine her shock when she finds out what he is and that he's over one-thousand years old. 

    Here is a truncated version of Stevie's reaction when she discovers that Galan, the man she loves, is a vampire.. . .

    Galan sat down on the bed next to her, but she slid away. "If only you knew how I wanted to tell you, how it hurt not to reveal what I truly am."

    "Yeah, I'll just bet that broke your heart."

    "Dearest, you are breaking my heart now."

    "You don't  have a heart."

    He nodded, pain and misery on his face. "My heart is not like yours. But this much I tell you, and I beg you to believe me. I never sought my vampirism. It was forced on my whilst I lay drugged and unconscious."

    "And you expect me to believe that?"

    "No matter, it's the truth." 

    She had to be by herself. It was all too much to take. If what he said was true--and she had to take him at his word--what a horrible burden to bear until the end of time.

    She raised a finger to catch a tear sliding down her cheek. "You'd better go now, leave me alone. And I think--" Her voice caught. "--and I think it would be best if we stopped seeing each other." 

    "You need time to get used to the idea. I'll call you later this week."

    "No!  You don't understand. This is 'goodby'.  I don't want to see you again."  

 

 

 

   Destined to live only in darkness Galan must defeat the evil Moloch to win the love of the mortal woman, Stephanie.

 

"--an enchanting book with the charm of a fairy tale and an ending that's pure gold."  Alma at Fallen Angel Reviews.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006WSJZLO

Catch the Magic! by Shirley Martin

                                                                                                                          

"Enchanted Cottage" by Shirley Martin 

Book 3 of the Avador series

"An evil witch places a curse on Alana Cullain, turning the once beautiful woman into an ugly hag.  Chased from her village, Alana seeks sanctuary in the dark forest. There, she finds a strange cottage, once she'd never seen before, and makes her home there.

Demoted and badly wounded in battle, mercenary soldier Colin Duffrey heads home to recover. Along the way, he finds a cottage in the midst of the forest and finds refuge there.

A woman, marred on the outside, and a man, afflicted on the inside, meet in an isolated cottage. There, they learn that they can help each other. And with a bit of magic, miracles can happen."

--------------------------------------------

    Fantasy romances are fun to write. You can let your imagination run free, unhobbled by earthly limitations of time and space. As with writing any novel, it's a good idea to begin with the question: what if?  In writing my fantasy romance, I wondered what if an innocent young woman is accused of dark sorcery and chased from her village.

    An evil witch, jealous of Alana Cullain's beauty, places a curse on her, turning the once beautiful woman into an ugly hag. At the same time, Morag, the evil witch, casts a wicked spell over many villagers, afflicting them with a fatal disease.  Morag blames Alana, her face now covered with purple blemishes, for the deaths.

    The people chase Alana from the village. With nowhere to go and no one to turn to, Alana seeks sanctuary in the dark forest. There she finds a strange isolated cottage and makes her home there. She's determined to make a life for herself, even if she must suffer solitude for the rest of her days.

    What's a romance without a hero? Enter Colin Duffrey, a mercenary soldier, demoted and badly wounded in battle. Heading home to recover from his injury, he takes a shortcut through the woods and finds a secluded cottage there.

    What will happen when a handsome soldier meets an ugly hag? Can they find happiness together?  

---------------------------------------------------- 

Excerpt from "Enchanted Cottage"

    Tomorrow would be the last day she'd see him. How it hurt, how she would miss him, this man who had become part of her life in such a short time. Memories of Colin came in a rush, of the first day she'd met him, of taking care of him through his feverish illness, and the fear that he might lose his arm. She recalled his smile, his husky voice, everything about him that made her realize how much he meant to her.

    She held the door open for him, and he came inside, carrying the tack and saddle. "Soon we won't have any room for us," he said with a laugh, setting the tack and saddle by his knapsack.

    Determined to hide her joy, she fixed a neutral expression on her face. "I see you purchased a horse, what looks to me to be a fine animal."  What a brainless remark, she thought.

    "Aye, she should get me home within a few days."  He smiled then, that heartwarming smile that could win over the worst scoundrel. "That's not all I bought. Recall I said that I wanted to repay you for all you've done for me."  From inside his coin purse, he drew out a velvet bag and handed it to her, an expectant look on his face.

    She pulled the drawstring apart and gasped.  "My bracelet!  My gold bracelet!"

    He frowned in puzzlement.  'Yes, it's yours.  I bought it for you."

    She shook her head.  "No, you don't understand. This was--is--my own bracelet. My mother gave it to me years ago."  She explained about selling the piece because she needed money.  "Oh, Colin, how could you have known. . .?"

    He pulled out a chair and sat down. "That's the strange thing about my purchase. Something drew me to this piece, almost like magic beckoning me." He laughed. "Silly, I know. But something urged me to buy this bracelet for you."

    Overcome with emotion, she fought the tears that threatened to spill. Despite her efforts. tears misted her eyes. So happy to have this cherished piece returned to her, she wanted to kiss him and hold him and tell him she never wanted him to leave. But she could neither do nor say what her heart wanted.

    Suddenly aware she must look even uglier with her tearstained face, she brushed her hand across her cheeks. "Thank you, Colin.  I thank you from the bottom of my heart."

    He reached over and clasped her hand. "Something to remember me by. Tomorrow I leave for home." 

Copyright (C) 2013 Shirley Martin

Available here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009R8Q6Y0/

Find Shirley's other BWL titles here: http://bookswelove.net/martin.php

Author Shirley Martin on the Casting Couch with Sheila Claydon

With a vivid imagination and a love of storytelling, Shirley Martin has always enjoyed writing. She was born in western Pennsylvania and her first published novel, Destined to Love, reflects her familiarity with the area and shows her love of  writing. From this historical romance she blossomed out into other genres. One More Tomorrow is a vampire romance, one her publisher dubbed 'a sizzling seller'. Now the author of several fantasy novels and novellas, her writing should appeal to just about every reader of romance. Her books are on sale at Amazon and most major book stores and have garnered great reviews. 

Welcome to the Casting Couch Shirley. I am looking forward to learning more about your writing technique.

* * *

Which characters are hardest for you to develop?  Is it the hero, the heroine, the villain, or the secondary characters?

First, thank you for featuring me, Sheila. I am so pleased to be here.

I often have trouble developing the heroines. I know women today like assertive heroines but since I'm a little reserved myself, it's difficult for me to present heroines who are truly assertive.

It is such a surprise to hear you say that Shirley because your heroines are great. When an idea strikes, do you work through the plot first and then cast the characters, or is it the characters first?  Or does it vary? 

It varies. After I get an idea, I usually work out a basic plot. I do an external and internal Goal, Motivation and Conflict chart for each major character.

That is so organized. Can you give an example from a published story? 

Yes. My historical romance, Forbidden Love, is centered around a steel strike in Pittsburgh, so I knew my hero would have to be a steelworker. To counter this I wanted the heroine to be from a wealthy family, so there would be extremes in their backgrounds, and thus, much conflict.

When deciding how your characters should look, do pictures inspire you, or do you think of someone you know?  Or perhaps you rely on an active imagination or another method entirely. 

I use my imagination

.

That is unusual. Nearly every other writer I've interviewed has to have their imagination triggered by some sort of visual idea. Do you have a system for developing their character traits?

As stated earlier, I use a Goal, Motivation and Conflict chart for each of my main characters,      but they often have a mind of their own and do unexpected things.

All characters have goals. Can your characters' goals usually be summed up in a word or two, or are they multi-layered?  Do they change as you write the book? 

My characters all have internal and external goals. Often their goals change as I write.

Motives drive a character. How do you discover your character's specific goals?  Are they based on back story or do other elements influence their motives? 

Their external goals center around outside circumstances.  Their internal goals are changes they must make within themselves. For example, in my time travel romance, Dream Weaver, my heroine's external goal is to save her lover's life. As her internal goal is to conquer her fear of violence  she has to attain her internal goal before she can save him.

It's very clear that you really think out your characters in great detail so, last but not least, do you like them?  Are they people you would want to spend time with? Assuming they are not just a paper exercise, which of your characters would you most want to meet, and why?

I like all of my characters and would love to meet them all.  I really admire the steelworker from Forbidden Love though.  Although he has so many things going against him he remains determined to attain his goals

* * *

Born near Pittsburgh, Shirley Martin attended the University of Pittsburgh and then taught school for one year.After that she became a flight attendant with Eastern Airlines. She met her husband when she was based in Miami and, with him, raised three sons. Once they were grown she devoted her time to writing, something she had always wanted to do.

With a vivid imagination and a love of storytelling, Shirley has always enjoyed writing. Now, sadly, a widow, Shirley lives in Birmingham, Alabama, with her two cats.

Visit her website: http://shirleymartinauthor.com/

Behind the Cover: Series

By Michelle Lee
BWL Art Director

Well, it's been a while, but then again, I have been hard at work crafting covers for the BWL authors when I am not chained up at the university working on the dreaded thesis work.

I know, I know, enough about me - get on with the cover information already.  Sheesh ... 

Series can be the joy, or the pain in the behind, of a cover artist.

Why?

The elements of the covers need to match in a series.   This can be a potential issue when an author either doesn't know ahead of time that they are going to continue in the same universe/with the same characters, or doesn't tell the publisher, or does tell the publisher but the artist isn't told.

Much of cover artwork is done using stock images.  This means, if I know ahead of time that an author is planning 3-10 books using the same characters, that I need to find a model that has numerous usable poses.  This creates an added challenge up front – but pays off in the end.  Because when that second book comes along, I already know what images are options, and I simply pull up my bookmarks and run with it.

Alternatively, if it isn't the same characters – the images still need to have the same feel.  So I will start looking for possibles that would work for future books, or I will make sure that I don’t go with an obscure style image, which would be hard to find a matching one later. 

Almost all of the covers that I have created are ones that I personally like.  (There have been a few exceptions however - I won't lie).  I also work hard to try and make each cover unique, despite the fact that I might have fallen in love with an effect, or with the way elements of a cover have come together.  It’s only fair to each author.  After all, cover art should not be like the suburbs – in my opinion, where possible there should be no cookie cutter version of a cover, duplicated numerous times with just small changes made. Obviously, some releases are in genres that just don't sell as well, or are of a length where the cost of an individual cover can be prohibitive.  I do not argue that they are wrong - it is just good business sense to evaluate cost:benefit ratios.  But if it is possible to create a unique cover for each release, in my opinion it should be done.  Yet, sometimes ... a certain cover will just tug at me, and I really wish I could return to it.  Series offer a happy middle ground - they allow me to return to effects and styles I previously used, without short-changing the author.

Series can also be a pain, since stock art is limited.  Again, if I know ahead of time, I can do my best to limit that having an effect.  But I am also an author, so I know how sometimes, secondary characters catch on with readers … or with the author.  Sometimes they just sit there and needle you, wanting to know when their story told.  So I never hold it against an author if they decide to do a spin off.  I just ask that if an author knows ahead of time that the book I am doing a cover for is part of a series, that they please let me know.  As mentioned in my post about the cover art form, there is a spot for just that, and since many series books with have a series title, that also tends to be a dead give-a-way to me.

So let's get down to discussing the details of what goes into a decision about series covers.

   

As you can see here with Jamieson Wolf’s Hope Falls series, all of the woman have a similar feel to them.  They are all soft, feminine woman, with their gaze over their raised shoulder.  When I was assigned the cover design for these, I know ahead of time that I was looking for a blond, a light haired brunette, and a dark haired brunette.  I wanted them all to have a matching look.  Then, for the background, I needed an image that was wide enough I could pan along it with each cover, so that the background is the same, and yet slightly different, with each cover.

When I don’t know about it being a series ahead of time, then there is a scramble to find images that match what I used before in style.  Take for example these two covers:

The coloration and feel of the image for Family Secrets is rather unique.  It isn't the standard cover image.  There are a lot of warm colors, and there is just a feel to the image that catches the attention.  Now I knew before I selected that image that there was another book in the series, so I made sure that I had something in mind that would work for the second book – Family Ties.  Had I not, it would have been a challenge to try and find an image that had the same feel as the one in Family Secrets.

When I didn't know, or quite honestly if I was told, I didn't catch it (because if Jamie knew ahead of time, I am certain she would have told me) - was that there would be a third book.  So when the third book rolled along, I did have a bit of a challenge to find another image that fit the same feel.  As you can see, there is a slight difference in the feel of the image, but overall, it does match well.  It has the same general pose as the second book, so it ties in, even though the colors are a bit off.

As an example of a series that just came into being (at least as far as I know) is Jude Pittman’s Healing Spirits series.  So I had no clue ahead of time that there would be future books.  It originally was just Bad Medicine.  

Then, she started planning for a second and third book - I am guessing because the characters started talking again.  At that point we had two options – try to match the feel of the first book, or redo the cover for the first book.  

So we have the original Bad Medicine cover, with a woman in a field.  A nice soft cover.  It really didn't fit with where the story-line is going to flow to next.  So unlike in Jamie's case, we decided to go with door number two and instead of matching the existing cover, just started over.

These are the results:

As you can see, the redesign allowed for the mimicking of elements.  Along the bottom of all three covers is a scene image of some kind - a cityscape, a deserted road and a lake in front of mountain, with trees.

Each of the covers has something faded into the upper background - a woman, a martini glass with car keys, and a Native American making music at a drum.

What about if the author wants to keep the cover (or the publisher does) but there still needs to be a way to tie it in?  Well that calls for a compromise of sorts - the tweak.

That's right, a slight modification to the existing covers that creates a series feel.

So, the story of that goes something like this ...

Once upon a time, there was a fair author princess named Shirley Martin.  And she had a couple of books that were kind of sort of tied together, but the nasty mean evil witch cover artist didn't know that. So she cast a spell on the covers, making them pretty - but not uniform.  (Except for the first two that she knew were in the same universe ... so fonts matched).

Then one day, the good fairy publisher came along, and discovered there was a spell on the nasty mean evil witch cover artist, and removed it with a spell of her own - a fourth book spell.  The most wondrous kind of magic.  That allowed the good witch cover artist to take control of her body again (seems she was just possessed, and wasn't really a nasty mean evil witch) and bring harmony to the covers with a touch-up potion.

 With the help of the touch-up potion, the covers were made to match with the use of the same fonts, and an added border.  Having a little bit of fun, the good witch cover artist also brought elements of the cover out beyond the border (see the sword in book 1, twinkles in book 2, twinkles in book 3, and dragon wing in book 4).

And so our story comes to a good end for the fair author princess Shirley Martin.  And for the good witch cover artist too, because she wasn't fed to the mean 'ol troll.

Great story huh?  Nah, I am not mellow-dramatic in any way!

Now if you are looking for the true moster-load of challenges as a cover artist ... let's check this one out.  Keep in mind, I DID know this was going to be a series ... so that didn't create the challenge.

The challenge on Vijaya's series comes about because they are all historicals ... and finding good historical images is challenge enough.  But some of the books have the same characters, and others don't.  Plus, time keeps on a rolling along ... so while a character might be dressed perfectly in period for one cover, it won't work for another.  So finding historical images of the same person, in the different period clothes that I need?  Um, winning lottery ticket anyone?  Cause that is the kind of luck it would take.  Which means something else has to be worked out.

For the first two books, I did luck out.  Jimmy Thomas fit perfectly for the first book, and for the second book, I found an image on his cover art images website with a woman showed from the back, and him in it.  Keeping the same background, just shifting it to a new angle, I was able to tie that in.  I also needed something to tie the whole series together - so there is the sword, and something wrapped around it.

 Now for the third book, since there was a new hero, I wanted to recreate the feel of the first book, so the heroine is front and center, with the hero faded into the background again.

Even though I kept the same style for the third book, I wanted something different for the fourth book.  Especially where the author said fire is a very important aspect to the fourth book.  So that was the focus of the images.  And yet - if you look behind the hero, you will see the same castle as for book three.  Now the woman chosen is thankfully very close to resembling the woman from the third book.  But what about the guy?  Well - chain mail takes care of that. : )

Now, the mermaid wrapped around the sword places this book with a certain heroine.  All of her books will have a mermaid, just like all of the books dealing with the first heroine had a dragon.  

I already have images planned for wrapping around the sword in each of the future books.

Ideally, when a new hero and heroine is introduced, for that first book, it will mirror book one and three, with any later books involving them done different to match the story aspects.

I did say it was a challenge -but not in a bad way. It makes me stretch my creative muscles.  Now had I not know about this ahead of time - well, all bets would be off then.  Remember, I am working on my thesis, so stress is already a way of life for me. : )

Yeah I know, enough about me ...

So you see, a LOT can go into creating a look for a series - because you do want the books to look somewhat similar.  At least as a reader I know I like it when they do.  I hate it when books change cover style mid-series.  Drives me nuts!  I have actually gone back and repurchased books in a series when they were re-released with matching covers, just so everything matches.

Ok, I never said I don't have issues ...  In truth, I have more issues than Time magazine.  : )

As a cover artist, I do my utmost best to make sure that I keep series matching each other - and make the author happy with the end product.

Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter in Behind The Cover where I will talk about the X-Factor.  After that, we roll on along to Author Branding.