Book in a Day--Debra Dixon Workshop Recap, October 2003

Book in a Day Workshop
(October 2003)
Recap by Tara Hoesly

October 25, 2003, was yet another great day to belong to the Heart of Denver chapter of Romance Writers of America. The Book in a Day/Story in a Day workshop was a rousing success. Debra Dixon, author of many works including GMC: GOAL, MOTIVATION AND CONFLICT presented her informative presentation based on that work.

Dixon began her presentation by explaining that GMC covers the basic questions of any work: Who? What? Why? And Why Not? The who is the character. The what is the goal. The why is the motivation, and the why not is the conflict. Each of these stages has both an external and an internal component. GMC is successful because readers what to care about people and their desires, and GMC outlines those desires.

The GOAL of the character is what the character wants. The want has to be something that the character must work toward, and it must be important enough for the character to risk or sacrifice for it. In addition, it must have a sense of urgency attached to it. For example, in THE WIZARD OF OZ, Dorothy’s external goal is to get home. Her internal goal is to find her heart’s desire.

The MOTIVATION behind the character’s goal is what fuels the plot engine. It is the key to everything – even the stupidest action can be accepted by a reader if the motivation is good enough. Choices for the character are never good or bad, but always bad or worse, or, as Dixon puts it, “sucky or suckier.” In THE WIZARD OF OZ, Dorothy wants to get home because Auntie Em is sick. She wants to find her heart’s desire because she is unhappy.

The CONFLICT is what stands in the way of the character accomplishing the goal. Often, the conflict begins as vague and becomes concrete. In THE WIZARD OF OZ, the witch stands in the way of Dorothy and her home. At first, the witch makes vague threats. Then, she sneaks around, spying on Dorothy and Scarecrow in the apple orchard scene. From there, she progresses to shooting fireballs at Scarecrow and drugging the entire troupe. Internally, Dorothy can’t find her heart’s desire because she doesn’t know what it is that her heart truly desires. The best conflicts are layered, with big issues being approached from many different angles.

Along with GMC, Dixon discussed the tool of the Dominant Impression as a means to understand a character. The Dominant Impression is made up of an adjective and a descriptive noun. To be most effective, the adjective should be a behavior-describing word as opposed to a physical characteristic. Precision is everything in deciding upon a Dominant Impression. For example, in STAR WARS, Han Solo is a “confident outlaw.” But consider how much more effective the impression is if he is described as a “cocky smuggler.” The Dominant Impression of a character may change over the course of a work. To help describe a character’s Dominant Impression, it may help to consider how the character would react to a given situation – for example, what would the character do if he ran over a squirrel? Such situations can bring to light the elusive Dominant Impression.

Yet another tool Dixon discussed to help understand a character was the Tag Line. The Tag Line can be defined as a theme, or a life lesson, or what the character needs to learn. These life lessons come from GMC – the external conflict is what creates the big, black moment that forces the character to learn and accept the life lesson. In THE WIZARD OF OZ, Dorothy’s conflicts as she tries to get home teach her that if she wants to find her heart’s desire, she must look within herself.

Once you have your GMC chart with your character’s Dominant Impression and Tag Line, you should look to see if it lends itself to the creation of scenes. A book is basically a series of scenes linked together. Each scene should work to forward the Goal, the Motivation, and/or the Conflict. Remember that Goals and Motivations can change throughout the course of a book, and Conflicts should have ever increasing stakes.

Besides discussing GMC, Dixon also took the audience through the stages of the hero’s journey, as outlined in THE WRITER’S JOURNEY by Christopher Vogler. There are twelve different steps in the journey outlined by Vogler (which he simplified from the journey outlined by Joseph Campbell). The beginning steps include the introduction of the hero in the Ordinary World and the Call to Adventure. Tests, Allies, and Enemies make up a significant portion of the middle of a book, and the Road Back is for the end of the book. Vogler’s model is flexible because it is a model and not a formula. This means that the steps he outlines do not have to be followed in the order he provides. Some steps can be repeated or eliminated, depending on the needs of a particular story. By linking the steps of the hero’s journey to GMC, Dixon led us through an exercise to create a memorable and solid story before writing a single word.

As a bonus to the day, we were treated to a panel discussion by agents Paige Wheeler and Susan Morgan Farris and by editor Craig Nelson of Loveland Press. While acknowledging that what constitutes good writing is very subjective, they all agreed that agents and editors look for certain things when deciding to work with an author. Agents and editors want a long-term relationship with an author. Since a significant amount of money goes into producing one book, agents and editors want multiple projects from an author for the chance to build up a reader following. Professionalism is key in submissions if an author wants to get past the query letter stage. And while critique groups are a valuable tool, agents and editors are looking for an individual style, not a group project.

All in all, the Book in a Day workshop was a wonderful experience for all who participated. Many thanks to Debra Dixon for her outstanding presentation, to Paige Wheeler, Susan Morgan Farris, and Craig Nelson for providing valuable information as well as taking appointments, to the Wyndham Hotel for fabulous accommodations and a much-better-than-standard-hotel-fare luncheon, and to Tami Cowden and all the Heart of Denver volunteers for making this happen.