I’m a big fan of Debra Dixon’s book: GMC: Goal, Motivation, and Conflict. I read this book every time I start a new project. Why? Because the book really helps me stay on track with what the plot bunny comes up with in my head. Book ideas are great, but they won’t help make a great book if my protagonist or antagonist are walking around randomly with no goals and reasons why they do what they do. To help facilitate the brainstorming process I created the GMC Wizard. (Especially when I got tired of creating my own grid each and every time.)
Instructions: From the first screen you enter basic information about your character that you may want to reference later if you plan to print out the results.
- After you enter basic information (if you like), you move on to the External GMC screen. Now you will build you goal-motivation-conflict statement. You start with the goal. Then the motivation for that goal and then finally the conflict that will hinder that goal from coming to past.
- The next screen is for the Internal GMC. You’ll do the same steps. From there you’ll work on the external GMC to the internal GMC.
- You can work on two sets GMC statements (internal and external) at a time. Once you are done you can print the results for later if you like. When you press the View Printable Grid you will be taken to a new window with the grids that you can print.
Future Plans:
- GMC-O-Matic – For those times when you just need a sample GMC period.
- Additional Slots so I can build GMCs for chapters and scenes.
Suggestions? Send them my way. I created this to hold my hand while I plan my books so I hope it helps someone else.
Really cool, Shawntelle! I'm going to try using it for my WIP.
AWESOME! You are a genious!!! Srsly.
And also, I feel terrible. My google reader kicked your blog out for some reason – I was wondering why you hadn't posted in awhile. Looks like I have a lot of great reading to catch up on!
This is so COOL! I can't wait to use it! 😀
Thanks Shawntelle! I'm about to start a new novel and this will be a big help.
This is so cool, congrats.
Dyanne
Really cool, Shawntelle! Thanks for sharing this w/ us!
I just used this to help me get started on my character descriptions and cover blurb and it is AWESOME!!!
Thanks so much for developing this and sharing it with us!
This is awesome! Thanks for doing this.
i really enjoyed this. it rocks, thanks for sharing.
This is beyond awesome. Thanks so much for sharing your mad skillz with us!
Angela @ The Bookshelf Muse
You are da bomb. Definitely linking to your site! This helped TREMENDOUSLY!!!!
Wow Shawntelle – this is so cool! As a web developer and a writer I'm very impressed. This is the first time since I first heard of GMC at the 2004 RWA that I've completed the fields and it made sense. Thank you so much for creating this!
Oh I just realized you created this over a year ago – I just came across it now on the Romance Diva's forum 🙂