 |
| Myra Johnson |
Why does it work? Because we identify with people we worry about. And you really, really want readers to worry about your story characters!
Before you can ramp up the conflict, you need to know what is most important to your central character--what the character would risk everything to protect or obtain. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs can help. (If you’re unfamiliar with Maslow, click here for more info.)
Maslow’s theory assumes that people will attempt to fulfill their most basic needs before moving on to satisfy their more advanced needs. The pyramid below illustrates the different levels, with the most basic human needs at the bottom, building toward the highest psychological needs at the top.
As we step through the levels, think about the central character in your work-in-progress. Where does the character’s current situation place him or her on the pyramid? What types of challenges do those needs suggest?
Physiological needs. This is the bottom and most basic level, what every human being requires for survival, including food, clothing, and shelter. Take away any of those and your character’s life is in
serious jeopardy. Think Katniss and Peeta in The Hunger Games, or Tom Hanks’s character in the movie Cast Away. Adventure stories usually rely heavily on survival needs, as do romantic suspense novels like Debby Giusti’s MIA: Missing in Atlanta.
Safety and security. The second level is one step above (pardon the pun) merely surviving. This is the need to believe that what makes us feel safe and secure won’t be taken away from us. It can include everything from financial security to health and well-being. In Tina Radcliffe’s novel The Rancher’s Reunion, the hero is living with Huntington’s disease, but not really living because he’s letting health worries separate him from the woman he loves. In A House Full of 
Hope, by Missy Tippens, the heroine is a single mother of four who worries that the hero’s arrival in town will result in her family’s eviction from their home.Belonging. Inherent in every human being is the need to share physical and emotional closeness with others. A few weeks ago I watched the Hallmark movie based on Beverly Lewis’s The Shunning, about a young Amish girl who defies her parents and then is shunned by the entire community. The resulting emotional isolation this character suffered was heartbreaking.
Janet Dean’s hero in Wanted: A Family exhibits his need to belong by attempting to find the mother who abandoned him.Esteem. A step above belonging is the need for self-respect, to be not only accepted but also valued by others. The need for esteem or recognition can drive people to attempt things they might not ordinarily do. A good example is Charity O’Connor, from Julie Lessman’s A Passion Redeemed. Charity feels
insecure in her family’s love, and she lets jealousy of her sister Faith drive her to seek validation in unhealthy romantic relationships.Self-actualization. This is a fancy term for reaching your full potential--or, from a Christian perspective, fully becoming the person God created you to be. Ultimately, that should be the goal for every story character. Not that we should show them reaching perfection by the end of the book, but the reader should believe the characters are continuing to grow and change for the better as a result of the challenges they’ve faced. Look at the heroines in Mary
Connealy’s Sophie’s Daughters series. In each novel the heroine must grow beyond her own weaknesses until she finds fulfillment--first through her reliance upon God, then believing in herself, and finally as a strong, confident partner in a satisfying romantic relationship.The most riveting stories take the central characters through varying levels of needs. As one need is met, the next problem may knock the character backward a level or two. In my novel A Horseman’s Heart, the hero finds belonging and closeness with the heroine and begins to feel valued and important, only to have an unexpected encounter threaten his sense of security and cause him to wonder if it’s time to move on again.
Let’s talk! Can you see using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to create interesting problems for your story characters? Which level(s) do you find your characters working through most often? Would bumping them back a level or two boost your story conflict and possibly prevent the dreaded “sagging middle”?
Leave a comment on today’s post to be entered in a drawing for A Horseman’s Heart.North Carolina’s a long, long way from Texas, but horse trainer Kip Lorimer needs to get out of town fast, because the woman who long ago destroyed his last remnants of trust has just caught up with him—again.
Special-ed teacher Sheridan Cross has trust issues of her own, so when Kip shows up with a horse to donate to the family’s equine therapy program, she can’t help but be suspicious. A cowboy a thousand miles from home and living out of a horse trailer? What’s wrong with this picture?
When Sheridan’s mother offers Kip a job as barn manager, Sheridan decides she’d better stick close enough to keep an eye on things, never expecting she’ll soon have eyes only for the handsome cowboy. Can they trust their hearts and find true love, or will their troubled pasts come crashing down on their dreams?
Watch for A Horseman’s Gift, book 2 in the Horsemen of Cross Roads Farm series, coming soon!
GOOOOOOOOOD MORNING, SEEKERVILLE!!!! Oh mylanta, it's been raining cats and dogs, buckets and every other thing you can think of in upstate New York! My puddles have puddles!
Debby Giusti here, ready to talk about secrets. Intrigued? Want to learn more?
In COUNTDOWN TO DEATH, the first story in my Magnolia Medical series, each character--the hero and heroine, the hero’s aunt, the villain, and a number of the red herrings--has an important secret that must be revealed. For me, intertwining the web of secrets was a fun exercise and, I believe, upped the tension and suspense.
In PROTECTING HER CHILD, wealthy heiress Eve Townsend must find the daughter she gave up for adoption long ago and reveal a secret about the life-threatening disease Meredith Lassiter may have inherited. Widowed, pregnant and on the run, Meredith initially rejects her birth mother and the hero, medical researcher Pete Worth. When he learns the truth about his father, Pete must reconcile his own past and encourage Meredith to do the same.
Janet Dean writes:I love adding secrets to my stories and often do. In Courting the Doctor’s Daughter I used a secret to provide external conflict between my hero and heroine. Luke Jacobs hides his true relationship with Mary’s adopted son. Mary suspects Luke’s hiding something from her, but over time, she begins to trust and care for him. Luke’s guilt and worry about Mary’s reaction if she learns the truth forces him to keep emotional distance from Mary and impacts everyone in the book. The reader is in on the secret and anticipates or worries what will happen when the truth comes out. Of course, it does, but love triumphs in the end.
Oklahoma Reunion is a secret baby book. This baby is eight years old and the story deals with not only the hero Ryan Jones' reaction to discovering he has a child but how the hero and the heroine Kait Field work to regain trust in order to create a future as a family for their daughter Jenna.
Julie Lessman’s shares her inspired secret:Even though I write family-saga romance instead of suspense, I try really hard to incorporate a big surprise at the end of each of my books. BUT ... when I got to my latest release, A Heart Revealed, where the heroine is married to an abuser who is still alive back in Ireland and cannot get a divorce or an annulment, I knew I was dead in the water because the only resolution I could see was killing the husband off. Since I didn't want to resort to the obvious, I prayed one day while sitting on my lower deck during the fall season, telling God that since He is the God of creativity, could He please provide me with a surprise ending for this book? Not ten seconds passed before an idea slowly drifted into my brain like the autumn leaves drifting from the trees overhead. I remember being so shocked by it, that I sat straight up and started laughing out loud. To this day, no one has guessed the ending ahead of time, which is a total tribute to God, not to me, giving the story that extra mystery quality that I feel so enhances a book.
Pam Hillman writes:I can't think of a single story line of mine that doesn't have at least one secret. But the secret has to be something pivotal, and it's not something that the person is willing to divulge easily. Otherwise, having and keeping the secret wouldn't be that big of a deal, would it? But, on the other hand, when the secret is revealed, it does double duty if the results are just as bad as the person worried about, but another twist turns everything around.
Mary Connealy writes:In my Kincaid Bride's series, all three of the heroes are badly scarred, emotionally and sometimes physically from a terrible childhood accident in a cave. None of them talk about it with each other or the women who come into their lives. Keeping this inside prevents them from healing and moving past the guilt they all carry for the damage done that long ago fateful day. In each book, the moment comes when the man talks to the woman he loves about what exactly happened in that cave. This is the moment they allow themselves to fall in love.
Yikes! Memorial Day has come and gone. For most people it’s the official start of summer. For this writer, it means June is fast approaching, and it’s the time when I ask myself the following questions as a mid-year review of my 2012 writing goals. 
Do I need to adjust my goals to accommodate any twists and turns in my writing career? This is the most important question to consider when you’re reviewing your writing goals. Having goals is important but MORE important is being flexible with them. After all, if an editor likes the story you’ve submitted but requests changes and asks you to resubmit, you’d want to let all your other goals fall away and work on that manuscript! I’ve been flexible with my writing goals already this year. I’m a firm believer in answering manuscript and work for hire calls from editors. That is always one of my yearly goals. It’s also one I’ve completed this year, which resulted in being asked for an audition chapter in a new book series. To accept and work on that audition chapter, and work on a novella idea that my agent requested, I had to stop working on one of the romance novels in my list of goals. Flexibility is the key in moving your writing career forward. 
No doubt you have probably heard that an author Facebook page is an important marketing tool. But do you know why? 
What’s the difference between a profile (or timeline) and an page?
Here is my advice: Get to know Facebook before using it as a professional networking site. Set up a personal profile account. All you need is an email address to get started. You can register here. Try it out for a while. “Like” other Author Facebook pages and watch how they are using this tool. See what works and what doesn’t. Then, when you are comfortable, you can take the steps outlined above. 
Sarah Ladd lives in Indiana where she shares her life with her amazing husband and sweet daughter. She has more than ten years of strategic marketing and brand management experience, including five years of marketing non-fiction books and three years of marketing the musical arts. Heiress of Winterwood, the first book in her Whispers on the Moors series, will release next spring. Visit her website or like her on Facebook!
