Character Motivation

I've talked about it before, but this blog is about what I'm writing today. And today, I'm examining one of my character's motivations to see if it's changed since I implemented all my edits.

It's weird looking at work that happened months ago. Sometimes, I see something and I grin and think "Damn, I wrote that? Go me." Often times I cringe and shudder and start hitting the delete key as fast as I can. Today, I'm just curious. I'm looking at the actions of one of my side characters who's important to the plot and wondering what they're thinking.

It's been said that every character has a motivation in every scene, even if it's just to get a drink of water. It's a silly thought, but it's true. So I'm looking at this character as I'm editing and I'm thinking "wait... has their motivation changed?" It's something I have to evaluate and re-evaluate constantly. Every read through means double checking that people are consistent in character, in dialogue, and especially in motivation. 

I think I'm happy with what I'm doing with this character that moment (pronoun games confirmed) and their motivations seem to be on par for the long run, but this specific scene I'm working on needs some serious consideration. The scene is structurally fine, but this character's actions are no long in line with their motivations. I know the reader might not notice it, but I certainly did. Which means a long night of rewrites for me that, hopefully, will be a noticeably better product for the reader.

​DFTBA