Hitting the Books

I’m still in the process of rediscovering who Travis, the hero of An Uncivilized Yankee, really is. I’ve used multiple sources: 45 Master Characters, Bonnie’s synopsis of Donald Maass’ Writing the Breakout Novel, and Holly Lisle’s –respect from others, fame, glory, sometimes dominance thenhref=”http://shop.hollylisle.com/idevaffiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=15153_22″>Create A Character Clinic.

I’ve figured out his archetype is that of Protector. That’s pretty obvious; I’d say 80-90% of the heroes out there are Protectors. But I’ve found archetypes to be of limited help. They show tendencies, not actual characteristics.

Haven’t gotten to doing Maass’ exercises yet–the cool flow charts in the CaC Clinic distracted me.

One of the first things Holly’s clinic suggests is using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as an easy way to discover what drives your characters.

Starting from the most basic, these needs are:

• Physiological–air, water, sleep, food, sex, etc.
• Safety–shelter, income, protection from predators
• Love and Belonging–to be accepted and cared for
• Esteem–respect from others, recognition, glory, sometimes dominance, then respect of self, competence, independence
• Self-Actualization–to fulfill potential, become complete

The upper needs can not be dealt with until the lower ones are filled.

For example, my heroine, Stella (actually, she’d shoot me if she knew I was calling her Stella in public–she prefers her nickname of Star), is in desperate need of Safety. Especially protection from human predators. That is her primary focus throughout the first part of the book. Because she does not feel safe, she can not feel loved and cared for, nor can she allow herself to love anyone in return. Once she feels she is safe, then she can move to the next level and find a place to belong, and a person to love.

So far I’ve figured out that Travis is much further up the pyramid. He’s got a good home, a good family, etc. His problems center more around the need for esteem. He’s lived all his life in the shadow of a genius older brother (while he loves his brother, he still wants attention and respect for himself), he’s 24 and still living at home (he doesn’t feel like a man and does not have his independence), and feels incompetent in many ways because he cannot find a purpose in life.

And that’s as far as I’ve gotten, but that’s still a lot more than I had a few days ago.

If you’re struggling with motivation for your characters, try this method. Works for any character. In fact, I’m eager to put Jake, the antagonist, on the couch and dig into his head. Right now he’s fairly one-dimensional, but I’ve never been able to pin down exactly what he wanted.

Well, I shouldn’t keep Travis waiting–he’s got a wee bit of a temper. That much I’ve known for quite a while

Bis spater.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 13th, 2006 at 11:14 pm and is filed under Thoughts on Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.