On Character motivation

[aeriedraconia.livejournal.com]

I just ran across this article about Character Motivation. Ilona Andrews talks a little bit about what motivations are and why they are important.

"Motivation of the character is absolutely crucial to the success of the story. Give the character a proper motivation and readers will follow him to hell. The stronger the motivation, the better is the ride."

The whole article is here:
http://www.leagueofreluctantadults.com/2007/12/motivation.html

Building a City

[aeriedraconia.livejournal.com]

Building a City


Some people say they just create it as they go; I am not one of those people. Yes, create as I go works to some extent but I need to know more and I need to write the specifics down because my city does figure in several books. Other people say they've been working with their city for so long already that they know it inside and out. I used to be like that but I discovered that I could forget things over time and that I was so familiar with the details that I didn't realize that I forgot to describe things to the reader who wasn't familiar with my world (a danger for the fanfic writer too I'd guess).

If you have a city that will be the setting for many scenes or that will feature in several books you need to know something about that city so the details don't morph, drift or change through the story or the series of books. So, how do you build a city? What goes in a city? Where do you start?

I thought turning this into a group brainstorming exercise might be helpful and interesting.

( Stage 1: Where to Start )