Category: Katie Ganshert

3 C’s – It’s Friday!

Posted on by Katie Ganshert

Can I tell you a story? I asked my friend Jeannie, the Character Therapist, about phobias and it reminded me of my bird phobia. I know this isn’t really a care, concern, or celebration, but humor me so I can humor you….

What I am about to tell you is not a joke. This is a true story. But I give you permission to laugh.
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When I lived in Wisconsin, I went on my morning jogs with a tennis racket. And it wasn’t to go play tennis either.
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Here’s why. At the exact same spot on my route, a psychotic blackbird would dive at my head like a Kamikaze pilot. Screeching. Loud. And visions of Alfred Hitchcock’s, The Birds, would flash through my mind. Picture driving by a jogger waving a tennis racket in the air, while a rabid bird swooped at her head. This was me. And after a couple attacks, I started encountering psychotic birds everywhere. I even heard on the news that a hawk was attacking bikers somewhere in Washington.
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Finally, my husband, who didn’t want our dinner conversation to revolve around birds anymore, decided to ride his bike along with me while I jogged, determined to take the thing down. But guess what? When we go to the spot, somebody had already killed the blackbird. It was dead on the sidewalk. Don’t get me wrong, I’m an animal lover. But this bird had it coming.
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You’d think that would be the end of my phobia. But no. I lived a year of my life in perpetual fear of birds. I’m talking, I would jump into oncoming traffic to get away from a tweet that sounded even remotely close to my ear. My husband did not like this. He told me my fear of birds was going to get me killed. Thankfully, I didn’t need therapy. And I am relatively calm around birds now….. relatively.
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Cares:
I care that I am no longer afraid of blackbirds.
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Concerns:
What do you do when you have an idea for a novel, but the idea won’t cooperate? I can’t figure it out. I have a great premise and I’m excited about the two main characters, but I cannot pin down their GMC’s. This part of novel writing always freaks me out…
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Celebrations:
I’ve already exceeded one of my summer goals, which was to read two books on the craft of writing. Well, I just finished my third yesterday. Now I’m rereading Plot and Structure. And I just ordered Finding Your Writer’s Voice and Techniques of a Selling Writer off Amazon. I’ll make sure to share the goods in my future posts.
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I ate the BEST ice cream last night. Mmmm… it was a celebration in my mouth.
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Question to ponder: What are your cares, concerns, and celebrations on this HOT Friday morning?

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Final Post on GMC

Posted on by Katie Ganshert

This will be my last post on GMC. Sad, I know. If you’re interested in purchasing Goal, Motivation, and Conflict by Debra Dixon, click on the link to purchase it. It’s really an eye-opening read.

I thought for my closing post, we could do a little recap.

G stands for goal. Every main character needs one. External and Internal. What does your character want? And what’s at stake if your MC doesn’t reach her goal? The higher the stakes, the better. (check out the G in GMC)

M stands for motivation. Every goal needs one. Why does your character want what he wants? The motivation needs to be believable. You can make your character want anything, as long as the motivation behind the goal is compelling. (check out the M in GMC)

C stands for conflict. Every story needs one. What stands in the way of your character reaching her goals? (check out the C in GMC)

Every scene you write needs to advance your character’s GMC in some way. If one of your scenes doesn’t address a G, or an M, or a C, then you must ask yourself, why is the scene in the book?

Some fun little, helpful add-ons Debra Dixon includes within the GMC chart are: a tag line and a dominant impression. She writes the tag line above the chart and the dominant impression below the character’s name.

The tag line is the overall theme, or message of the story. This can be stated in one sentence.

The dominant impression is two words – an adjective and a noun – describing the essence of your character. For the adjective, you want to avoid physical description. I love the dominant impression, because it’s an excellent two-word description to go back to when checking for character consistency.

Here are the examples Debra gives from the movie, The Wizard of Oz
Tag line: There’s no place like home.
Dominant impression (Dorothy): unhappy teenager

The GMC is the road map to your story, guiding you as you work through the plot. Once you have a strong, focused GMC, writing the elevator pitch for your novel is a piece of cake.

The basic outline of an elevator pitch: Character wants (goal) because (motivation), but (conflict).

Here’s an example from Beneath a Velvet Sky, my third novel:
An up and coming architect wants to associate herself with the innovation and grandeur she never knew as a child. But when tragedy forces her home, her ambitions are challenged by an estranged best friend, a farm she doesn’t want, and the handsome man who lives there.

Here’s an example from The Wizard of Oz:
An unhappy teenager wants to get home because her aunt is sick, but first she must fight a witch and win her broom in order to get help from the wizard.

Today’s Challenge:
I thought it might be fun to play around with some GMCs. Here’s the only rule: no using whatever you are currently working on. Make something up! Have fun! Think of something outrageous. Something heart-wrenching. Something absurd. What GMCs are rolling around in your mind today?

Here’s my crack at it:
Dominant impression: sensitive writer (AKA Jimmy John)
Goal: to win a pie eating contest and prove he’s a man
Motivation: to show his dad that skinny guys can eat too
Conflict: he has the appetite of a bird and he’s competing against his big, burly brother who has the appetite of a horse

Elevator Pitch: A sensitive writer wants to win the local pie eating contest in order to prove to his dad that he’s a man, but he’s never been able to eat more than a sugar snap pea without getting full, and he’s competing against his big brother, a world champion sumo wrestler.

If that’s not the next best seller, I don’t know what is. Have fun!removetweetmeme

Color Me Some Passions

Posted on by Katie Ganshert

“Three-dimensional characters in novels require three dimensional emotions, for in real life no person is entirely one thing.”

-Brandilyn Collins from her book, Getting Into Character.
While there are many ways to color passions, for the sake of brevity, I’m only going to focus on one particular aspect. If you want to learn the rest, you’ll just have to read Brandilyn’s book.
One way to color passions is to set the passion against its opposite. Allow me to explain…
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In this chapter, Brandilyn makes an analogy involving a pearl necklace. What happens if you wear a pearl necklace against a white sweater? Will the necklace stand out? No, of course not. But what happens if you wear the pearl necklace against a black velvet dress? Now we’re talkin’. Suddenly, the pearls in the necklace pop! We notice them. Why? Because we set them against their opposite.

Let’s say we make a character in our story cruel. Maybe it’s an abusive husband who physically and emotionally abuses his wife. We write a scene where he flies into a rage because his wife shrunk his favorite shirt in the wash. Let’s say he’s so angry, he backhands her, kicks her while she’s on the ground, and leaves her crumpled on the floor, weeping. Okay, so we know he’s a cruel guy. What could we do next? There are a lot of possibilities. But let’s imagine this…

After slamming the door and storming out of the house, he finds an abandoned baby bird in a fallen nest near his driveway. Let’s say this husband bends over, coddles the baby bird to his chest, and gently pets its beak. Does this action take away from his cruelty? Actually, quite the opposite. We’ve just taken the pearl necklace and set it against black velvet. His cruelty toward his wife is magnified. This is one way to color passions. Pretty cool, huh?
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Question to ponder: What are your favorite of all time characters? Why? I bet if you look closely, it’s because this character had colorful, three-dimensional passions.

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