There have been three key lessons I’ve learned the hard way along the rocky road to becoming published. I knew about GMC early in my writing career, but it took me a while to figure out how to apply it. Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes and prevent some of your own.

Lesson 1: “Good writing is not accidental.”

I heard that sentence at the 2000 RWA conference in Washington DC – it was in a self-editing workshop taught by Stephanie Bond and that one little sentence revolutionized my writing career. I’ll say it again – “good writing is not accidental.” This is fairly self-explanatory, but for me it was huge. This was freeing and at the same time filled me with an almost overwhelming sense of responsibility. On one hand this meant that I was the only one responsible for what went on in my book, what words were on the page, who the characters were, etc. The more I thought about this responsibility, the more free I became. This freedom enabled me to be specific and deliberate in my approach to writing. I am now able to write with confidence (well, that might be a stretch) and know that by the time it is all said and done, I’ll have a finished book that is tight and cohesive with a memorable romance. It’s a slightly renegade way to think of writing since many writers like to perceive writing as more of a mythical experience – characters taking over and plots that come in dreams – and writing can be mythical sometimes, but never for a moment believe that you are not the one in control.

Lesson 2: Romance readers want the romance

This is fairly self-explanatory, but think about it for a moment because we often forget. Think about your favorite books – your keepers – why are they on your keeper shelf? For those of you who’ve heard editors speak about books they’ve bought, what is it that we hear them say? Sure they talk about that elusive sparkling voice and high-concepts and hooks, but time and again, it comes down to the romance. It is the same for all genres – mystery readers read for the who-dun-it, horror readers read for the scare. It’s the beauty of genre fiction, readers know what to expect when they pull a book off the shelf. So if this is true, if we as readers want romance, why then is it so difficult to write books centered around the romance? Let me share my experience with this.

It took me 2 years to write my first book. Granted, that wasn’t 2 years of consistent writing – I was busy. Okay, so I wasn’t any busier then than I am now, but I was ignorant, unorganized, unfocused and frankly unmotivated. Writing wasn’t a top priority. But that’s another workshop. So upon completion of that first book after 2 years of hard work, I sat down to read my masterpiece – which I was certain would be the next best seller and would make everyone ask, “Amanda Quick who?” – only to discover that while my characters and plot were indeed interesting, there was something missing. The romance.

So what do you have if your romance novel is lacking in romance? Well, technically you could have a variety of things – what I ended up with was episodic scenes that were connected by weak transitions and a relationship that didn’t make sense so that my happy ending was neither satisfying nor deserved. While layering is often necessary during revisions, you shouldn’t have to layer in the important stuff. Meaning if you’re writing a mystery – you shouldn’t have to layer in the mystery. Same goes for the romance. The romance is the main stuff – it’s the whole point – all the other elements should arise from and center around the romance.

Lesson 3: GMC has to pertain to your story

I know, DUH!, but somehow I missed this point. I’d heard all about giving your character’s goals before I started my first manuscript, so I gave everyone in the book goals. The problem – those goals had absolutely NOTHING to do with the plot or anything else in the book. I just tacked on random goals b/c I knew my character’s had to have goals. Once I realized that the goals needed to pertinent to the story, it all made a lot more sense.

I share those lessons only to let you know where I come from and how I view the writing process. You might be wondering what the first two lessons have with GMC, well, nothing. But they do have a lot to do with making GMC work to your benefit. There are three steps to take to make GMC work for you.

1. Develop GMC for your hero and heroine
2. Identify your hero and heroine’s character arcs (which in turn reveals your theme)
3. Build scenes that arise from the GMC and the character arcs

Let’s jump onto the basics of GMC and maybe this will make more sense as we progress.

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. As you’ll see from my later examples I tend to have two levels of external GMC – what I call Big GMC and Story GMC. The Big GMC is the stuff that exists before the book starts, the Story GMC is the GMC that is developed because of some action within the story.

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 it’s 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 character gets 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 character’s have a romantic past that might have led to said “issues.”

I’m going to give examples from Courting Claudia.

Claudia’s GMC

Internal
goal – to trust her own instincts
motivation – because it will give her freedom
conflict – but she’s blinded by her loyalty to others and trusts their opinions instead of her own

External
goal – (big)to get Richard to marry her/(story)quit her job as an illustrator
motivation – (big)because he’s her father’s choice for her/(story)if her father finds out, he’ll never forgive her
conflict – (big)Richard seems uninterested/(story)but Derrick keeps persuading her to continue

Derrick’s GMC

Internal
goal – to trust someone else implicitly
motivation – because it would allow him to have a complete life (the magical internal motivation)
conflict – but he won’t allow anyone to get close enough

External
goal – (big)increase readership for his paper among the aristocracy/(story)prevent Claudia from quitting her position
motivation – (big)because it will allow him to have a platform for more political topics/(story)her illustrations have increased aristocratic purchases
conflict – (big)because the one thing that’s increased his readership among the aristocracy is threatening to quit/(story)he has to court her to keep her employed

How to use elements to build character arc and discover your book’s theme – we all have heard about character arcs and until I figured out this combination, I tried everything under the sun to come up with clear character arcs. I knew that in order to have good fiction, in particular good romance, I needed to have my characters change and grow. This meant they needed to move from Point A to Point B in order to achieve their happy ending. Here’s what I discovered.

Using your character’s internal GMC you can find the two ingredients needed for character arcs: error in thinking and the lesson.

Error in thinking – The Error in Thinking is something the character believes 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.

The Lesson is the life lesson your character must learn before they can overcome the crisis in the big black moment. And, yep, the lesson is often related to the character’s error in thinking. It’s also worth noting that often in romances the hero and heroine’s lessons (and therefore their character arcs) are mirror images of each other. For example, if your heroine needs to learn that it’s okay to lighten up a bit and lose control every once in a while, then your heroes lesson might be that he can still enjoy life even if he’s a bit more responsible. This is Point B in the character arc.

Claudia’s character arc

Error in thinking – her natural instincts are incorrect; she can’t trust herself

Lesson – learn the difference between her real feelings and the feelings she puts on because they seem more appropriate

So basically Claudia’s growth was about learning to trust herself, so she starts the book believing her own instincts are not to be trusted and through the book begins to question that until she finally accepts that there is a difference between her honest emotions and those she feigns because they feel more appropriate.

Derrick’s character arc

Error in thinking – he can’t trust anyone but himself

Lesson – that trusting another will complete his life

Derrick’s growth is about learning to trust another person. So he starts only trusting himself and is forced to trust others, particularly Claudia all throughout the book. This isn’t new to romance novels, it’s a rather traditional conflict for characters because it’s a very common issue we face in our real lives.

This example clearly shows two character arcs mirroring each other. Both characters in this book need to learn to trust – it’s different kinds of trust, but all trust. Guess what the theme of this book is? That’s right trust. This has been the easiest way I’ve found of identifying a book’s theme. You identify the emotional issue at the crux of your book through your character’s internal GMC and you find your theme.

So why does any of this matter? Many of you just sit and write until you figure out where your story is going. This isn’t necessarily wrong, but knowing some things ahead of time will save you a lot of time and frustration. Besides that knowing this stuff helps you know your characters so well that you’re then able to create three-dimensional characters. Once you have them, you can use them to brainstorm scene ideas so that you build your story around your character’s GMC. (A quick note for those of you who can’t make themselves plot ahead of time, you can use this method in revisions as well, fill plot holes, strengthen existing scenes, refocus scenes, etc.) Let’s look at some of those very scenes that I brainstormed that made it into the book.

External GMC – brainstorm scenes

The opening scene demonstrates Claudia’s story and big GMC – we learn that she’s at Derrick’s office to quit because she feels working there is being disloyal to her father, although she tells Derrick it’s because she will soon marry. But Derrick convinces her to stay on at the job.

Internal GMC – brainstorm scenes

Even after Claudia and Derrick are compromised, Claudia believes her father is right and Derrick is the wrong man for her. So starts their marriage feeling as if she’s done something terribly wrong and now her father will never forgive her and her new husband will always resent her. NOTE: internal conflict scenes are often more like sequels or bits of internal monologue within action scenes. This is until you get to the big, black moment, when the internal conflict is brought to a head and the character must face their worst fear.

Error in thinking – brainstorm scenes

There are so many scenes throughout the book that illustrate Claudia’s belief that her instincts are wrong, that other people’s opinions (primarily that of her father) are the one’s that are correct and proper. One in particular is when her father tells her she should do whatever possible to get Richard to marry her – even seduce her. Inside, Claudia feels this is wrong and even feels it is wrong that her father should suggest such a thing, but is trapped in her error in thinking that she believes he has her best interest at heart and agrees to do so.

Lesson – brainstorm scenes

There is a scene fairly far into the book where Claudia finally sees the truth about her fathers. She’s spent her entire life trying to please him and it dawns on her that she’ll never do that because he holds her to impossible standards. She realizes that her instincts are not always wrong and that she can take a risk and trust herself and in doing so she chooses herself over her father.

So that’s essentially it. Having a strong grasp of GMC is the foundation to using this method. But once you have that, you simply take those three steps.

• Develop GMC for your hero and heroine
• Identify your hero and heroine’s character arcs (which in turn reveals your theme)
• Build scenes that arise from the GMC and the character arcs