Fiction Fundamentals

The employment history section of my resume includes a nine-year stint in the United States Marine Corps. I learned a lot about motivation during that time. Important lessons, such as, “if you don’t do what we tell you, when we tell, how we tell you, then we’ll make you do four billion and twelve pushups.”

When I set out for boot camp, I was unorganized, undisciplined, and unathletic. The training program ran in two-week cycles, and if a recruit didn’t complete the requirements for each segment of a training phase, that individual would be “re-cycled” until she passed. The drill sergeants emphasized this fact daily.

I struggled through every challenge, and somehow managed, among other feats, to successfully pitch one-half of a two-man tent, open C-rations with a handleless can opener the size of my thumbnail, assemble and disassemble an M16-A1 rifle, and pass a physical fitness test, lovingly referred to as a PFT.

Running wasn’t my forte, and I dreaded each Friday—PFT day. We were required to run a mile and a half in 15 minutes or less. I passed every test, but always dragged across the line just before the timekeeper blew the “time’s up” whistle.

During our final PFT, one of the drill instructors ran alongside me and matched my slow pace. (I’m sure that wasn’t difficult for her.) She pointed over her shoulder. “See all those people behind you?”

I glanced backward, amazed to see a pack of stragglers even slower than me. Nod.

“They’re not going to make it,” she said. “They’re going to be recycled.”

As I shuffled my feet and sucked in lungfuls of humid air, I could think of no worse fate.

“You’re not going to make it, either,” she added.

What??

She pointed to a girl about 50 yards in front of us. “See that recruit?”

Nod.

“She’s going to make it. And if you sprint in, you’ll pass. Come on!” She grabbed my elbow and quadrupled her pace. Our pace.

I focused on the runner ahead, who represented my only hope of passing. My salvation from recycledom. The ache in my side no longer mattered. The chilly March air burning my lungs—irrelevant. The drill instructor never left my side, and, after what seemed to be an eternity, we crossed the line.

“Twelve, twenty-seven,” yelled the time keeper.

Twelve twenty-seven? I was furious. Between gasps, I sputtered, “You told me I wouldn’t pass without sprinting. You lied!”

She laughed. “Now you know what you’re capable of with proper motivation.”

No way would I have pushed myself that hard had I not thought two more weeks of my life would be spent on Paris Island. Our characters must have proper motivation for their actions, too. We can’t force them to jump tall buildings in a single bound, scale a rock wall if they’re afraid of heights, or dive for pennies if they can’t swim. But…if we raise the stakes, crank up the motivation—the reason they must do what they must do—we can get away with anything. Even murder.

I sat in the audience once as a motivational speaker described an imaginary I-beam stretched between two skyscrapers. “What,” he began, “would it take for you to walk across that I-beam?”

Easy—nothing. I don’t even like to stand in a chair to change a light bulb.

“What if I paid you a million dollars?”

Maybe…nope. That wouldn’t do it.

“What if”…and the list went on, increasing the stakes, until he finally added, “I held a gun to the head of your child and said do it or else.”

Okay, so now I’m mentally inching out above a busy city street. Don’t look down.

The point is, we can convince our characters to do what we want (or need) them to do—if—we provide proper motivation. Without it, our readers will say, “No way!” and toss the book at the wall. It’s like Newton’s Third Law of Motion: “To every action force there is an equal, but opposite, reaction force.” Without the first force, you can’t have the second reactionary force.

Think of your story. Have you written an action for your character(s) without the first force, the motivational one? Are those forces equal and opposite? The more drastic your character’s action, the more drastic their motivation must be.

Until Friday,
Happy Writing!