How to Plot a Character Driven Book in 3 Easy Steps

by Robyn DeHart

The following article appears in the December issue of Smoke Signals, newsletter of the Smoky Mountain Romance Writers.

It is said that there are two types of writers: plotters and seat of the pants writers (or fly into the mist writers). Obviously the majority of us fall somewhere in between. I'm a serious plotter, one of those scene-by-scene plotters who knows primarily everything that will happen in the rough draft. But don't let that frighten you pansters away. These tools can be used no matter what type of writer you are. I happen to think that using them BEFORE you write is more efficient, but not everyone works that way. Well, I promised you 3 steps, so let's get on with it.

Step 1 - GMC. If you've been in RWA for any length of time, you've probably seen this acronym more than once. GMC = Goal, Motivation and Conflict.  You could sum up GMC in the following sentence: Character wants (blank) because (blank) but (blank). The blanks are the three elements-the G, the M, and the C.

Goal-what do they want?

Goals need to be three things: concrete, specific and they must require action in order to be obtained. This is external that we're talking about as internal goals tend to be more subconscious. They too require action to obtain them, but action of a different sort and while they are specific, they are typically abstract rather than concrete, i.e., the feeling of acceptance, love, trust, etc.

Motivation-why do they want it?

I've always referred to this element as being the reader's secret decoder ring. What I mean by this is this is the element you use in order to effectively communicate with the reader-this is the tool they'll use in order to understand why our characters do and say the crazy things they do. If a character is properly motivated, a reader will follow them anywhere no matter how improbable it may be. In the GMC equation, the motivation is why the character wants their specific goal-why they want to open that bookstore or why they need to trust others.

Conflict-why can't they have it?

This is the easiest of the three to understand, but it seems to be the most difficult to get right. Conflict in its simplest form is opposition. That's it. But we really struggle with this and maybe it's because most of us are women and we tend to be the peacemakers in our families-I'm not really certain why, but conflict can be a real struggle. But it doesn't have to be. Conflict, in the GMC equation, is simply why they can't have the goal they're seeking.
External conflicts can be acts of God, other characters, or the characters get in their own way. Internal GMC is made of the same elements as external GMC, but it is different. As I mentioned before, this is the stuff that's subconscious, meaning your character more than likely isn't aware of it. 

The most important thing to note about internal GMC is that it exists with or without the hero/heroine or the events of the book. That is to say, if you took your heroine outside of your book and put her on a deserted island, she would still have the same "issues" that she has in the book. What makes the internal GMC important to the plot of the story, in particular the romance, is that she's finally met someone that might be worth sacrificing some things for, might be worth changing for. It's the hero and their interaction that challenges the heroine to deal with her "issues" and eventually grow and change to resolve her internal GMC.  The only time this might not be the case is in reunion stories where the characters have a romantic past that might have led to said "issues." Once you have GMC's for both your hero and your heroine, you're ready to move on to:

Step 2 - CHARACTER ARC. There are two elements that make up a character arc: Error in Thinking and Lesson. You get to both of these from examining your character's internal GMC.

Error in thinking-this is something the characters believe about themselves or the world that is: wrong and keeping them from achieving their internal GMC and thus happiness (love). This is Point A in the character arc. So how do you discover your character's error in thinking? Well, basically you look at the internal goal and you build from that. So if your character's internal goal is to learn to trust others, then you can assume that right now they don't trust anyone but themselves, so therefore their error in thinking could be that other people can't be trusted, or that you can only trust yourself. Often this element is worded almost like a cliché, like "you can't judge a book by its cover" or "blood is thicker than water," but other times it's just a phrase that sums up why your character has been able to achieve their internal goal.

Now that you have your error in thinking, the lesson is easy to unfold. Character lesson is just what it sounds like: what does your character need to learn? This is Point B on the character arc.

Once you know your character's lesson, their arc becomes clear.  So using the example from the error in thinking, if we know our character believes you can only trust yourself, then his lesson could be something like, it's risky, but worth it to trust others. So now you have your GMC and your character arc unveiled.  Which leads us to step number 3.

Step 3 - THEME. "Now, wait a minute!" some of you are yelling. "How can I know my theme before I've written the book?" Obviously you don't have to, but it can make your writing a lot more focused and cut down on your wandering into dark alleys.

Before we discover our theme, let's define it so we're all on the same page. Contrary to what your sophomore English teacher might have told you, theme is fairly simple. Think about the following sentence: "This book is about ______________." That's it, that's what theme is.  It's not a synopsis or a pitch, however; this is a one-word description.

What you're looking for here is the emotional crux or conflict of your book.  So you could say "this book is about TRUST," or "this book is about REDEMPTION," or even "this book is about RESPONSIBILITY." The easiest way to discover it is to look at your hero and heroine's character arcs. More often than not when working on a romance, your hero and heroine's character arcs will be mirror images of each other. The example I gave above for the error in thinking happens to be the error in thinking for my hero, Derrick, in my August 05 release, Courting Claudia. Consequently, Claudia's error in thinking is that she can't trust herself. So we have a hero that can only trust himself and a heroine that only trust others.  Hmmmm… anyone detecting a theme in here?  That's right, it's trust.  Having character arcs that mirror each other makes everything in the book more cohesive and builds to a satisfying happy ending.

Now that you have all the necessary ingredients to plot, all that's left is the actual plotting.  Remember that the character arc is the plot of a character driven story. Let me repeat that, the character arc is the plot of a character driven story. Our jobs as writers is to figure out how to get our characters from Point A to Point B. You do this by forcing the character to face their issues again and again until they either have to grow and change or forsake their internal goal. Naturally because we're writing romance, they will change and accomplish their internal goal. For those of you who are pansters, this is all stuff you can use during revisions. Get that book in front of you and after you've read it through, ask yourself what the book is about. What are you trying to say with this story? Then look at your hero and heroine and figure out their character lessons. Once you have your lesson you can go back to each of your scenes and ensure that you're forcing your hero to deal with his lesson so that he has ample opportunities to grow and change.

As for you plotters out there, I recommend using this from the very beginning. Focusing your story from the beginning will save you revisions. Don't panic if you can't figure out your theme or any of these other elements. You can do as the pansters do and go back after your story is finished and revise using these tools. Once you get the hang of them you will be able to use them as plotting tools. Let's face it, writing will never be easy. (And if it is, then you're not working hard enough. ) This is why most of us read every craft book on the market and buy all the tapes at RWA conferences, to find tools to add to our toolboxes that will make writing, well, not necessarily easy, but easier and more efficient. For me, these steps have made the difference between my writing books and selling them.

Robyn DeHart admits proudly to being a craft junkie and serious plotter. She writes Victorian-set historicals for Avon books. In 2006 she'll launch her Ladies' Amateur Sleuth Society series. Look for A Study in Scandal in March and Deliciously Wicked in October.

Back to Articles home page