marycatelli (marycatelli) wrote,
marycatelli
marycatelli

observation on what Jack wants

The thing I was talking about in the last post about this is particularly useful if you got an idea from the plot side and need to fit a character into it.  Jack needs to steal the Eye of the Night, that lovely diamond.  Well, from one POV, what he wants is the diamond.  But that's just a MacGuffin until you fill out why he wants it.  What sort of character would want it?

And having that answered, you can go on to the next question, which is:  What sort of character would find wanting it and stealing it a deeply formative experience?

It has been my experience that the first question is the hard one.  Once you have worked out why Jack wants it, it's not hard to work out why it will affect him so much.
Tags: character arc, macguffin, motives and purposes, writing technique
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