We’re back on the horse again. Kind of. The Mars novel is in the home stretch now, and I’m still trying to figure out how the semester can best be made manageable, so things might still be iffy for a while, but dammit, I’m making an effort. That’s probably the most one can ask. 
And if one were to ask more I’d be all like “What? I’m trying. Piss off.” So.
So what’s been on my mind lately? Well, a lot of things. But mostly what’s been troubling me most with this book is motivation.
I don’t remember the first time the motivation of a character was an issue for me. I do know that it’s been an ongoing issue. I remember that there was a point – really, a series of points – where I must have sat back in the middle of writing something and struggled with the realization that these people were not my puppets: I couldn’t just move them into whatever positions I wanted, at least not if I wanted a story that held together around them. They needed to have reasons for why they did the things they did, and those reasons had to be understandable to the average human being.
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