How To Tell A Great Story

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The Big Three - Goals, Motivation and Conflict

Let's talk about plotting, and the first things to think about here are goals, at least two, one for the heroine and one for the hero. Without goals, your characters, just like real folks, will wander aimlessly, not really knowing what they want and, of course, not having the foggiest idea of how to get it.

So what does your heroine want? Maybe she has the desire to regain control of the family ranch, or a need to discover a cure for the crippling disease. Maybe she's an FBI agent given the task of recovering some valuable microchips missing from the file of a suspected serial killer.

How about your hero? Maybe he wants a certain piece of lakeside property for a big resort he has planned. He could be a scientist after a prestigious award. How about a man suspected of a crime he didn't commit and he's looking for evidence of his innocence.

Motivation is the reason achieving the goal is so important to your character. Let's continue with these same ideas. The heroine wants to regain control of the family homestead because she made a deathbed promise to her father that she would do so. Or she needs to discover a cure for the disease because he brother has it and if a cure isn't discovered soon, he's going to die. The suspected serial killer? He may have been the man who killed her best friend.

The hero needs to build this resort to build up his crumbling business and clear his reputation of accusations of fraud. Or, he's counting on winning this award because it will lead to a career with a company he wants to work for. And in the third case, if this man doesn't prove his innocence, he will end up in the electric chair.

The final step in creating a plot is conflict, and this is best if it's between the hero and heroine. You may have already figured out from the above examples where this is going, but in case someone didn't, let's take these scenarios one by one.

Your heroine wants to regain control of the family ranch. This is the same property the hero wants for his resort. If she wins, he may lose his company and his reputation will be mud. If he wins, she won't be able to keep that promise to her dying father.

She's a scientist and if she doesn't find a cure for her brother's illness, he'll die. This is the same cure the hero is looking for to win his award and get into the company he desires. If she beats him to it, he won't win and it's doubtful if the desired company will hire him. If he wins, he will give the cure to the drug company where he seeks employment, a company she has reason to distrust.

In the third case, if she doesn't get the microchips back, there will be little evidence to convict the serial killer and her sister's murderer will go free. He has stolen these chips and needs them to prove his innocence and find the real killer. If not, he dies in the electric chair for crimes he didn't commit.

Goals = The things they must have or do.
Motivation = Why these things are so important.
Conflict = If she wins, he loses. If he wins, she loses.

Although not really essential, it adds to the conflict if there's some sort of time limit. He has six months to save his company. She has one month to pay the mortgage or the bank will foreclose. Ah! That's exactly what he's waiting for.

Her brother has been given six weeks to live. The deadline for eligibility in the prestigious award is in six weeks.

In the final set-up, the deadline is the same for both of them...the trial that will prove the hero innocent…or guilty.

Once you have these three things - goal, motivation and conflict - firmly in line, a great deal of the plot will fall into place. Of course while these two people struggle against each other like two dogs with one bone, they fall in love. And, as Shakespeare once put it: "Aye, There's the rub."

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