One of the first lessons a creative writer learns covers GMC: Goal, Motivation, Conflict.  Without a viable GMC combination, it’s impossible to create characters that leap off the page and burn themselves into your heart, so GMC is at the core of every memorable work of fiction. Not only does each major character have their own GMC, but ideally, each relates to the major theme and they all come together to govern the characters’ actions in the climax.

• (G)oal. What the character wants and strives for to move the story forward. It must be difficult to achieve and come with its own inherent challenges and obstacles, and each choice and character change through the novel must make it harder or easier to attain that goal.
• (M)otivation. The logical, believable reason or reasons the character wants that goal more than anything else in the world and is willing to work toward it instead of giving up when the going gets tough.
• (C)onflict. The seemingly impossible obstacle or obstacles that will keep the character from attaining the goal until she has proven herself worthy through struggle and hard choices–and the way you keep your readers turning pages.

Tension, according to literary agent and author Donald Maass, is what makes a novel breakout, what makes it sell. He explains it like this:

All of this comes down to opposition of one type or another:

• The character’s external goal conflicts with her internal goal.
• Circumstances put two of her external goals in conflict with each other so she must choose between them.
• Another character she loves wants something that conflicts with her own goal.
• Attaining one suddenly changes circumstances and makes achieving the other impossible.
• Achieving one would have an impact on others her conscience would not allow.

The options for creating opposition are nearly infinite, but they must arise naturally from the GMC to be believable and truly compelling, and there must be an equally compelling reason why those circumstances occur. Similarly, the reader must understand and believe the reason why opposing characters are thrown together and kept together in a situation of conflict. Externally, their characteristics and goals must be interwoven into the novel’s plot so they physically can’t evade the conflict that is thrown at them. Internally, their motivation must make it impossible to give up.

To set up this kind of situation, as with anything in your manuscript, it helps to start with a macro view. Debra Dixon provided a simple chart in her excellent book, “GMC: Goals, Motivation, and Conflict.” 

There’s a simple formula to filling out this chart:

This is, of course, just a very quick example, and it is only the first step. But you can see how important it is to create the set-up for tension in the overall GMC so that you have the opportunity to put tension into every scene.

I, personally, would find it very difficult to write Cinderella’s story the way I set her up in this example. I would have to give her a much more compelling reason for going to the ball and far greater opposition to keep her from getting there. On the other hand, I could write the stepmother’s story in a heartbeat. Already, I’m wondering what made her the way she is, what makes her love her unworthy daughters so deeply, and whether her conscience will let her find redemption in the end. I feel the need to know, and the outcome isn’t clear to me. There’s room for her to change what she wants, to get what she wants and find it bitter, to fail and be happy to have done so. THAT provides room for tension and reader engagement.

What do you think? Which story would you rather write? Which story would you rather read?

Happy plotting,

Martina

Martina Boone is the author of Compulsion and Persuasion, out now in the romantic Southern Gothic Heirs of Watson Island trilogy from Simon & Schuster, Simon Pulse. Illusion, the final book, will be out in October of 2016. Martina is also the founder of AdventuresInYAPublishing.com, a three-time Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers Site, and YASeriesInsiders.com, a site dedicated to encouraging literacy and reader engagement through a celebration of series literature. She’s on the Board of the Literacy Council of Northern Virginia and runs the CompulsionForReading.com program to distribute books to underfunded schools and libraries.