Really? Why? Are you Doing it Wrong? Although one I did have to give up on because it asked me not to give a character anything physically insurmountable, and even then I knew that would dent my ouevre, and I couldn't have that.

I think any kind of advice book has stuff to take and stuff to leave. I mean, I don't write fiction, but every grant writing guide has a section that says YOU MUST ARRANGE IT IN THIS ORDER, but each guide gives a different order. So obviously, no one can follow all the books. You take what works for you/your situation and leave the rest. I mean, right?

Debra Dixon's Goal, Motivation and Conflict

I just had to ask someone the other day what GMC meant, because I had no idea what they were talking about.

it asked me not to give a character anything physically insurmountable

Because heaven knows no one ever has situations that simply must be coped with and aren't going to go away, because that's just silly and Everything Always Ends Well.

Feh.

My least favorite bit of advice is "What's your theme? You've got to have a premise!" "Uh, OK, my theme is life is hard." "All right, does each and every scene promote that theme?" "Look, I'm just trying to get the silly fool to go kiss the guy, OK? Higher truth is just going to have to wait a bit."

I know, Connie. Tell God that, right? She did not get that memo, obviously.

Liese, I love more than is probably healthy the line

all your emotion safely shuttered/behind that smile like missile silos

I just had to ask someone the other day what GMC meant, because I had no idea what they were talking about.

Glad to know I'm not the only one out there! I mean, I'm sure it's a fine book, helpful to more people than not, but it's not The Only True Way.

Though I do sometimes ask myself AFTER I've written a scene what a character's goal and motivation are, and if I'm doing enough to bring them out. It's just using GMC as a building block that bugs me, because it feels way too mechanical WRT the way I write.

There is no Only True Way. Anyone who tells you there is is selling you a bill of goods. There are methods for approaching the forbidding task of writing which some folks have developed which may be of use to you, or bits of them might be, or none of them at all. Really, look on writing books as your minions--they are there for you to use for your own purposes and only if you want to. If not, ignore them. They are there to do what you want, you are not there to do what they want.

Though I do sometimes ask myself AFTER I've written a scene what a character's goal and motivation are, and if I'm doing enough to bring them out.

wrod. The best advice I heard on the whole premise/goal thing was "Write the story in your head first, and odds are by the end of it you'll know what the underlying themes are."