What is GMC?
The first step to developing a novel beyond the initial concept is to develop your GMC. If you are a newbie like me, you might not know what those three letters represent. Let me share what I have learned.
What is GMC?
GMC stands for Goal, Motivation, and Conflict. These three concepts are developed around your individual characters.
- Goal – What does your character want? What is the reason they take action?
- Motivation – What is driving them to achieve their goal?
- Conflict – Why can’t they have what they want? What is preventing them from learning their life lesson?
Each character you develop will have their own external and internal GMCs. Just in case those old Literature & Language classes are fuzzy in your memory, external means you can touch it or achieve it without emotion, while internal revolves around the emotional.
Here is an example of Little Red Riding Hood’s external and internal GMC:
Debra Dixon does a fantastic job of explaining each aspect in her book Goal, Motivation, & Conflict. In fact her book was so useful, I have included it and links to purchase it on The Write Resources page.
Over the next few weeks I will be using what I have learned from her book to explore more about GMC, but for now, why don’t you try your hand at GMC?
Today’s Challenge:
Take your favorite fairy tale character or even your own made up character and share their GMC. You can copy and paste the following into the comments if need be:
Character:
- External Goal –Â
- External Motivation –
- External Conflict –
- Internal  Goal –
- Internal Motivation –
- Internal Conflict –