Thursday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

USING MOTIVATION TO SHAPE YOUR PLOT

By: Laurie Schnebly Campbell

You already know that, no matter what kind of plot you’re building, it’s gotta be motivated by your characters in order to feel plausible. It doesn’t matter whether you’re doing an emotional plot or an action plot or both — what makes it work is the characters.

So what IS it that makes your characters do what they do? Or another way of asking that is, what makes anybody do what they do?

On the surface, motivation is simple.

There are all kinds of theories of motivation, and they all boil down to the same thing.

We want to be Okay.

Whatever it takes to be okay, that’s what motivates us.

Maslow talked about that, saying that to be Okay we first need Food and Water…yep, fine…Shelter…got it…then Safety…and in most books that don’t involve a zombie apocalypse, those issues are pretty well taken care of.

So we get into the next level of what people need to be Okay, which is Belonging / Acceptance / Love. Then there’s Respect of Others and Self-Respect, and finally there’s the drive to Be All You Can Be. Everywhere along that continuum, you’ve got some great motivators.

And that matters, because it’s the motivation that makes a character interesting.

Where does it come into the story?

. . .

Read the full article HERE!

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

1. Fiction University: Character Evolution: Don’t Restrict Your Characters to Your Original Vision of Them http://ow.ly/zKaL1
2. Why do you write? - The Rhubarb Writers Group : Publishing : SCBWI http://ow.ly/zKaTB
3. A Better Way to Open Your Novel - Storyfix.com http://ow.ly/zKb07
4. Are Your Scenes Causing an Effect? http://ow.ly/zKbma
5. How to write a novel to an outline and still be creative | Nail Your Novel http://ow.ly/zKbqn
6. How to Easily Write a Great Logline http://ow.ly/zKbxI
7. 45 Ways To Sabotage Your Social Media Success | Molly Greene: Writer http://ow.ly/zKbAg
8. 11 Reasons Why People Blog - Jeffbullas's Blog http://ow.ly/zKbFg
9. Social Media - LinkedIn Acquires Bizo: Three Ways It Affects You : MarketingProfs Article http://ow.ly/zKbLF
10. Three Words That Will Speed Up Your WordPress Blog http://ow.ly/zKbS9
11. 10 Ways to Attract Your Ideal Customer on InstagramThe Heyo Blog http://ow.ly/zKbYm
12. Build Your Blog with Social Media Optimization (SMO) http://ow.ly/zKcar
13. How to Bulk Schedule Messages Using HootSuite http://ow.ly/zKck3
14. The art of writing a powerful plot twist http://ow.ly/zKcH7
15. So, About That Cover: Book Cover Design Tips From a Merchandiser – Kobo Writing Life http://ow.ly/zKcRv
16. BookMarketingBuzzBlog: How To Publish A Best-Selling Book http://ow.ly/zKcYy
17. 7 Must-Have Networking Apps to Boost Your Social Media Marketing | Social Media Examiner http://ow.ly/zKdl1
18. Announcing: A New Resource for Those Who Need Great Content - Copyblogger http://ow.ly/zKdn6
19. Playtime with Amazon’s Search Engine and Selling Prompts by Jason Matthews — The Book Designer http://ow.ly/zKdu6
20. Writer Unboxed » The Magic Trick to Landing an Agent at a Conference (Hint: There’s No Magic Involved) http://ow.ly/zKdCh
21. Update re: Amazon/Hachette Business Interruption | The Passive Voice | http://ow.ly/zKdIs
22. The Write Type - Multi-Author Musings: Good News for Self-Publishers http://ow.ly/zKdN6
23. Self-Published Book Awards: Are They Right for You? - Marcy Kennedy http://ow.ly/zKdUr
24. 9 Best Tools to Make Writers More Successful, Organized, and Effective - Helping Writers Become Authors http://ow.ly/zKdYg
25. Julie Musil: What to do Before You're Published http://ow.ly/zKe1T
26. Using Motivation To Shape Your Plot by Laurie Schnebly http://t.co/1OcUVLg9fy via @FFnP
27. How to Fill a "Hole" on the Bookstore Shelf http://t.co/O60Ri38BPm via @NinaAmir

Happy writing and running, Kathy