All posts tagged: motivation

The Teacher is Talking: The Winner’s Brain–Motivation

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By Leslie Lindsay Am I a “winner” because I spent the majority of my “free time” (i.e. kid-free) whacking bushes?  Well, perhaps I am.  At least according to “The Winner’s Brain:  8 Strategies Great Minds Use to Achieve Succeess” by Drs. Fenske and Brown (Harvard Press, 2010) who suggests that motivation is one of those 8 strategies.  Here’s how it works: I am motivated to trim my bushes with an electric trimmer that my neighbor loaned me.  You see, I was out over the weekend painstakingly trimming them with this large pair of scissors–you know the kind?  It was taking forever, but in a weird way, it was kind of satisfying.  I knew all about the electric version, it’s just that we don’t have one (ask my hubby, it’s his “rule.”)  But then, after Mr. Chin showed me how….it started raining.  Hard.  We packed up and headed back in.  Today–finally warm and sunny–I headed out to get the job done.  I wanted to return the Bushwacker promptly as any good neighbor would do. You see, …

Write on, Wednesday: Developing Characters

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By Leslie Lindsay I have been reading these great books from Writer’s Digest Books, their “Write Great Fiction” series.  In this particular title, Characters, Emotion, and Viewpoint:  Techniques and Exercises for Crafting Dynamic Characters and Effective Viewpoints (2005), the author Nancy Kress gives us readers (writers?) a checklist for developing characters. Here it is: Your four sources for drawing characters:  yourself, people you know, strangers you hear or read about, and pure imagination.  Modify them if they are you, people you know, even strangers to some degree.  Don’t make it too transparent. List of potential characters?  Choose a protangonist.  Now, study your “cast of characters.”  Are they interesting?  Diverse?  Are you excited to write about them?  Do they connect to your protagonist in a realistic manner? No matter how much backstory is presented in the narrative, you should have a clear picture of each character’s past.  Your character’s motivation should grow out of his/her backstory.  More unusual motivation–>more backstory.  (helps create emotion) Interesting characters hold conflicting values and/or desires.  “Help” readers select the character’s personalities …