Goals

Story goals should be both measurable and explicitly defined.

Jimmy joins a boxing league.
So?

Jimmy joins a boxing league because he wants to impress a girl.
Defined, but not measurable.

Jimmy joins a boxing league because if he *wins*, Susie will go out with him.
Whether Susie goes out with him or not is measurable because it’s visual, clear cut, obvious. Either she does, or she doesn’t.

Scene goals should work the same way. Don’t just have your characters sitting around the coffee table yapping (or worse, laying in bed ruminating on their lives) when you can have them striving toward an unambiguous goal.

Where there’s goals, there can be opposition—and where there’s opposition, there’s conflict. Conflict turns pages. Conflict is good.

Inherent Conflict

One way to guarantee conflict in your story is to have protagonists with directly competing goals or outlooks.

An oft-used example is "the fireman and the arsonist". We also see the FBI agent and the hacker, the cop and the vigilante, and so on.

But keep in mind that conflict doesn't equal career. Inherent conflict can come from very basic outlooks on life.

Ex:
Rule follower vs Rule breaker
Globe Trotter vs Homebody
Orderly mind vs the free spirit
Ends Justify Means vs Follow Procedure
Introvert vs Extrovert
Reliability vs Impulsivity

GMC

GMC stands for Goal, Motivation, and Conflict. This term was popularized by Deb Dixon, who does workshops and published a book on this topic.

Basically, the theory is this: All primary or secondary characters worthy of appearing in your story should have GMC, which can change over the course of the story and which can be expressed as follows:

[Character] wants [Goal] because [Motivation], but [conflict].

This is also one way to set up your story pitch when querying editors and agents.

EX: Susie wants to marry Johnny because she just found out she's pregnant with his baby, but she's engaged to Johnny's scary biker brother and the wedding's tomorrow morning.

Heads up: GMC

This week's Craft topic is GMC. Look for "GMC" posts on Wednesday.

Wounded Hero/ine

Also known as a "hole in the heart" (Michael Hauge), a character's wound often defines their internal conflict. It's that missing piece in their lives that affects them emotionally, and stops them from entering into a loving relationship.

Ex: My mom left us when I was twelve. I'm not worthy of love.
Ex: My dad beat me when I displeased him. I'm not good enough.
Ex: My checkered past has ruined all chances of happiness for the future. I'm not worthy of being trusted.
Ex: As a child, we moved too often for me to make any friends. I can't be one now.
Ex: I was born with [disease/issue] and I don't want to pass that on to my children.

Once the reader understands the internal conflict, don't pound it into their skulls with needless repetition. The reader gets it. Now show how it affects the characters daily life.

Make use of subtext, throwaway lines in which the characters themselves may not even realize how much they've given away.

Hauge also has a phrase known as "the killer share" to describe that scene where the character reveals the wound and opens up enough to explain the hole in the heart and/or how it got there and/or how it makes the character feel.

Internal conflict is not why the person can't fall in love, but why s/he can't act on their feelings. They want the other person, but truly believe they can't have them.