La Bene Vita

Character GMC(S)

In "October Novel Prep Challenge" , we talk about our character's goal and the conflict that's standing in the way of achieving that goal. In 1996, Debra Dixon invented the GMC Method of Storytelling  , which posed another character element critical to any good story: motivation. Where the goal is what your main character wants, their motivation is why they want it. And at some point, someone added an "S" to the end (for "stakes"), and now many authors refer to this storytelling strategy as the "GMCS Method."

Either way, the point of the method is to focus on the character as driver of the story.

For example, in the micro-fiction story I wrote today for "The Bradbury"  ("Candy"  ), the main character wants candy. They are motivated by a craving for candy. The conflict is that Mom and Grandma don't want them to ruin their dinner, and the stakes increase when we learn that the character is an insulin-dependent diabetic whose craving was caused by a dropping blood sugar level. Objectively, the main character's goal and motivation drive the plot of this story.

What are your thoughts about the impact of character motivation and increasing stakes in storytelling? Do you have examples? If you prefer a plot-driven strategy to storytelling, what arguments can you make in favor of a plot-drive method over a character-driven method?

Literarily,
Michelle

Goals for 2/23/26 - 3/1/26

Work Goals
Review work tasks list 3x per week
Payroll - Caught up as of yesterday.
Website - Updated the Music Lab    and Teachers & Staff    pages.

Writing Goals
Create official author website - The bones are there! michelletuesday.com/author  
Min 30 min/week on current novel - TBD
One short story for "The Bradbury"  - TBD, but I did last week's today: "Candy" 
One themed blog post - See above.
One review - I'm ahead by three weeks (2/23,3/2,3/9), but now I have to review seven days in a row for that boss of mine over at "26 Paychecks " 
Current assignment for "26 Paychecks "  - In progress.
Current assignment for "The Sprawling Ink Society"  - I plan to post another assignment Sunday (which is March 1st.)