Hi, all! I’m very excited to introduce you all today to the very beautiful, very talented debut Blaze author, Elle Kennedy! Her first book for Blaze is out now (March release) that has about the hottest cover I’ve seen this side of global warming. In fact, I would have made it full size if I could have. Lots of changes at Plotmonkeys and we’re all still figuring things out. But we’re very happy to introduce you to Elle and hope you’ll find her as delightful as we do! Welcome, Elle!
I Can’t Get No Motivation
First off, I wanted to thank the Plotmonkeys for having me blog with them today! You ladies are fantastic (and one of the main reasons I started reading the Temptation line, which hooked me on Harlequin). Now, as the brilliantly clever title (fine, the cheesy title) of this blog suggests, I’m going to chat a bit about motivation today. Not what motivates me to write, but what motivates characters to do the things they do and say the things they say.
I bring this up because of the two books I’m currently working on, one a Blaze, the other a young adult novel. For both stories, my critique partners have questioned my heroines’ motivation, saying “why would she do that?” or “how come she’s not doing this? That’s the first thing I would do!” My response: “She’s doing this/not doing it because that’s what my synopsis says!”
Yep, my synopsis says so, and in order to make the plot work, I need my characters to do those things. But after that feedback, I realized, okay, time to rethink and make my characters drive the plot instead of the other way around.
Truth is, I hate books where the motivation doesn’t make sense. I just finished reading one where the heroine did things that I simply could not understand. She went on and on about wanting to be viewed as respectable (poor thing was a former hoe-bag) and then turned around and did the hoe-baggiest things ever. And then when the hero pointed out her slutty actions, she wails, “Why can’t people see I’ve changed?!” I’m ashamed to say it, but I stopped reading the story. I don’t know how it ended, and at this point, I don’t care. Nothing about that heroine made sense to me, and when you find yourself rooting for the hero to end up with someone else, then maybe you’re not reading a very successful romance.
So yeah, motivation is huge for me, as a reader, and as a writer. My biggest struggle as a writer is coming up with believable characters that do believable things. One way I’ve solved my motivation problem is to never base any characters on myself. I’m a pretty upfront person—you piss me off, I’ll tell you why and right that second, not two weeks from now. So no “me” characters. But more than that, I try to give them valid reasons, reasons that readers would understand, and regular motives as opposed to something unbelievably elaborate or dark (like, “I was molested as a child and can never trust a man again”). I tend to avoid traumatic pasts, at least in fun, flirty stories, though my romantic suspense that comes out in August does offer a very traumatized heroine.
In my new release, Body Check, the heroine doesn’t want to get involved with the hero for two reasons—she’s got too much on her plate right now for a relationship, and his career (hottie hockey player) turns her off since she grew up with a hockey dad coach. I hope these are motivations that readers get—we all deal with stress in our lives, we all have an idea of the career we imagine our partner to have, and these headaches or ideas can drive our decisions.
I’m hoping I passed the motivation test with this release. Now I just need to hammer it down for my next stories. Because motivation is too important to skim over, otherwise you’ll have readers putting down your book, the way I did last week with the hoe-bag.
So, any thoughts on this subject? Ever read a book where the characters’ actions made you shake your head and go, HUH? Ever tossed out a book because of it? For the writers, how do you come up with good motivation for your characters? And for those who don’t care one way or another about this subject, post something anyway, because one lucky commenter will win a copy of Body Check!
Elle
By all reports, Julie Leto was a sweet child once, somewhat shy, preferring to play quietly in her room making up stories. However, being raised with three brothers in a loud, primarily Italian household did have its influences and Julie discovered her inner tough girl. That’s probably why most of her heroines kick serious butt. Writing sassy heroines has worked out, as she’s sold over forty books to four publishers featuring strong, confident women. Julie lives in Florida with her daughter, a spoiled dachshund, a haughty lynx-point Siamese and a wide range of relatives all within driving distance.
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Good morning Elle!
That is definitely an amazing cover. I too have put down books where the characters behavior made no sense to me. I know though that it all depends on your perspective. What makes no sense to me might make perfect sense to someone else. I remember once reading a story that I liked but a review noted that the heroine was young but her behavior would swing between very mature and then she would do something stupid. Well, after going through the teenage years with my daughter and seeing how her friends behaved the heroine’s behavior made perfect sense to me but it wouldn’t have when I was younger.
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Welcome, Elle and congratulations on your first book/Blaze! Motivation is huge, one of the things we plotmonkeys make sure each character has! Great topic!
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Elle welcome to the jungle I’m sure that I have read books that I shake my head at the actions of the charactrs, but I’m battling a migrane for the second day so it hurts to think. I will be looking for you new book I love a sports hero so I will actomatically buy any book with a sports hero :danmonk
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Michele- can migraines be traded over the internet? I have had one all week and it’s killing me.
Elle- I look forward to your new book. I agree- if you can’t figure out the motivation of the characters, it’s not worth finishing the book. Nothing else makes sense and it is a big waste of my time, anyway.
Hope your motivation comes calling!
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Welcome Elle! I can’t wait to read Body Check. I agree that if I can’t figure out the character’s motivation, I’m not going to finish the book. Hope your motivation comes back soon!
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Hi Elle! Wow, that cover is awesome!! I wish she could have made it large too!!
Michele and Ev – huge hugs on the migraines. Hope they pass quickly!
After I’d completed my first ms (and sent it off to the TARA contest) I hooked up with a critique partner…Online. We never met face to face but we’ve spent hours in chat rooms and IM’ing. And her favorite word is “Why?”
She sounded like a freakin’ 3 year old. Every time I’d say, “She could do this,” or “He could do that” she’d say “why?” I would get so frustrated and remember one time typing, “Because I said so, dammit!”
She was right to keeping asking it because I didn’t have a strong motivation and the conflict wasn’t there. She was trying to get me to see that and the story is so much better now after going through that 3 hour “why session” with her. It was a painful Sunday night…I can still feel the pain and frustration from it…but it was an important lesson learned (hopefully) early on in my writing career.
Great topic, Elle, and congrats on the new release!!!
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Julie – what do you mean, “lots of changes at Plotmonkeys?” My drop-ins have been hit and miss lately, have I missed something important? :scratch3:
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Now that is one
cover!!
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welcome, Elle….this is Katie from Sizzling Pens (I am here, too!). I just got my book of yours yesterday…..and all I can say is Yowza.
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Alannah, we have a new webmistress, have moved to a new server and little by little are “updating” the site. Most of it, you guys won’t notice, but it makes things a bit harder for the PMs until we get used to things. I freaked out totally last night when I realized that there’s a new way to put up pictures until I realized that the new way will be MUCH easier once I get the hang of it!
Elle, awesome post. Character motivation is key to my enjoying a book. If I can’t buy the motivation, I’m lost. Same when I’m writing. Without the right motivation, I’m blocked. That’s usually the first thing I look to when a book isn’t working for me. I’ve learned also that all the plotting in the world doesn’t trump character motivation–I can’t make them do things that simply don’t work for the character. I quit trying a long time ago!
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I have plenty of times read a book where the characters’ actions made me shake my head and go, HUH? But there’s one that has really stuck to mind -although I can’t remember the writer or the title: the man has revenge in mind, he makes this woman’s life a living hell (her only sin is being the daughter of a dead man who caused him trouble) all the way until the last chapter and suddenly he’s all: “I made your life really awful, but I loved you all the time!” Riight…
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Congrats on your first BLAZE release! You know you are getting a terrific read, when it says BLAZE on it! What a YUMMY cover! :wink:
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Congrats on the new release! I saw this book on Harlequiin’s website and immediately put it on my to read list. I’d love to win a copy! :angel5
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Hi everyone! And I think that yes, migraines can be traded over the internet because I woke up with a monster one and lay in bed all morning with the covers over my head.
Maureen, I totally agree that perception plays a part when reading. I’ve had books recommended to me, my friend going “you’ll LOVE this heroine” and then I read it and can’t understand a thing the heroine does.
Carly, I’m glad you approve of the topic!! I figured the Monkeys would appreciate motivation…
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:wave: Hi Elle! Congratulations on your new release!
I love your topic on motivation because it is very important when writing any story and capturing your audience. After reading this I’ve realized that there are a few things I need to reassess about my own characters. It’s a dreary day here once again and what better way to spend a foggy day than writing…
Your book sounds amazing, and I love how the heroine doesn’t want to get involved with the hero partly because of her hockey dad coach. One reason why I stopped playing sports is because my dad was more passionate about the game from sitting in the stands than I was playing the game.
Happy Saturday Everyone!
<3 J
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Alannah, your story reminds me of my very first CP. After every scene, she would summarize my characters’ actions and tell me if she thought the motivation held up. It was super annoying (I mean, do you really need to analyze why my heroine went to the bathroom?!) but I ended up learning a lot from the experience.
Julie, you totally summed up my problems with my latest story–”I’ve learned also that all the plotting in the world doesn’t trump character motivation”. Yep, I’m learning that too…
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Katie!! I hope you like the book!
And I’m glad everyone is digging the cover! When my boyfriend saw the cover, he gave me this whole speech about how real hockey players don’t have chests that big–he then proceeded to list every hockey player on the planet and compare their chests to my hero’s.
Do I really care that my hero’s chest isn’t typical of a hockey player? Nope. I’d probably watch hockey more if the players looked like MY guy!
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Jessica, I’m glad the sports conflict resonates with you. Hope your foggy day writing goes well!
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Welcome to the Jungle, Elle! That is a sizzling cover! The marketing department at HQ really outdid themselves on that one. Wow!
Motivation is almost more important than conflict. If the writer nails the motivation for their characters the reader will follow them anywhere. There is a NYT best selling author whose books appear in the top ten each and every time he has a new release. One of his books, I started reading and put it down after the third chapter because the protagonist’s motivation made no sense to me. I kept asking myself, “Why is he doing this? Why doesn’t he do this instead?” None of it made sense. It was so frustrating. I didn’t like the protagonist, I thought he was spineless so I didn’t care what happened to him. Don’t know why his editor didn’t pick up on it. But obviously there were a lot of other readers who didn’t care or maybe picked up on something that flew over my head.
Congratulations on your first BLAZE release! I’m very curious to know if this was your first submission to BLAZE over if it took some time. If you’d care to share it you can e-mail me privately-cher@chergorman.com If not, that’s fine too. :-)
Have a great day,
Cher
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“If the writer nails the motivation for their characters the reader will follow them anywhere. ”
Well said, Cher!
As for my road to Blaze, this was actually my fourth submission. My first submission is what got me in the door though—to this day, I blame Julie Elizabeth Leto for not selling that first book….TOTALLY KIDDING! No blame whatsoever, but it’s funny, because the senior ed. loved that first submission, but said, “Unfortunately, we just bought a book similar to it, by JEL”.
But because of that story, the senior ed. requested I submit something else–the 2nd submission was apparently better suited to Temptation, now the UK Modern Extra. Brenda forwarded it to them. (BTW–they rejected it because they said it was better suited for Blaze LOL!)
Third submission, not quite right for Blaze.
Fourth–BODY CHECK–just right!
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Congrats on the Book, with a cover like that I would love to get body checked by him. hehehehhee
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Yeah, I hate it when motivations are completely ridiculous too. But I have this problem where even if I really hate a book (and the motivations inside it) I’ll still finish it! I have to know how it ends! I think there are only one or two exceptions to my rule — but I stopped reading those books because they were pompous and annoying, not because of a particular character’s motivations.
Anyway, congrats on the blaze! HOT COVER!!!
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Hi Elle and welcome to Plotmonkeys! I just finished reading a book where I questioned the actions of the main character. I did finish reading the book, but only because it was supposed to be based on a true story and I couldn’t really imagine someone taking those actions in true life. Otherwise, I would have tossed the book immediately. I think that it is important that the actions of the characters make sense, even if it is not what we would do, as ong as it makes some sort of logical sense. Thanks for asking our opinions and happy writing!
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Hi Elle,
Congrats on the new release. I’m looking forward to reading “Body Check.” I have read books where the heroine is in danger and she continues to be careless and goes out alone or puts herself in danger. I didn’t give up on those books, but there were times when I wanted to just throw the book against the book.
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Thanks for giving me the scoop on your Blaze journey, Elle. Brenda has rejected two complete ms, one of them after revisions and I don’t know how many book ideas. I finally got the green light recently for a project after sending her a list of 8 ideas. She picked one and told me it would probably give me the least trouble and be the easiest for me to write She wants me to use one of the sexual fantasies as the them. So I’m hoping this time will be the charm.
Cher
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What a great cover for your first book!
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Sorry to be so late to the party. I rolled over this morning, picked up the book I was reading and couldn’t put it down until I finished the last page! Elle, welcome to the jungle! :wave:
I have to agree. Without proper motivation, the story is full of holes and no amount of plot patching is going to cover it up. I guess, in some ways, I’m lucky. I’ll get a character in my head and carry him/her around with me for a long time before a plot ever starts to form. I let the character tell their story (up to a point) and if I say ‘pah-tay-toe’ and he says ‘pah-tah-toe’, we don’t call the whole thing off, just back up and think it through. It doesn’t happen often, so long as I’m not trying to force the issue.
Congrats on the Blaze!
I have to agree with your BF, though. The hunk on the cover is 
but every hockey player I’ve ever known needed a nose job and dental work. 
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Hi Elle! Thanks so much for being here with us today, and congrats on your Blaze!
And hubba hubba on the covah!
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So it seems like the general consensus is that the cover is hot! I’m glad everyone likes it!
Jo, I agree–as long as the characters’ actions make sense to me, I’m happy. Half the time I probably wouldn’t do what the character does, but that doesn’t make me put down the book, not if the motivation seems logical. It’s the books where not only would I NOT do that, but the author hasn’t given me a good reason why THEY did it, that I don’t like reading.
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Hey Donna! I was a terrible Dream Team member, eh? I couldn’t seem to keep up with posting reviews (then again, sabhdh posted like 20 reviews a day–can ANYONE keep up with that?) I’m glad you stopped by :)
Silver, I know some pretty cute hockey players who don’t require rhinoplasty—but none of them have chests like that. Though you’re right, flip to any hockey game and half those dudes could use a better nose…
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Hi Elle! Congrats on the new release! I agree with the majority—
cover!
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Hi Elle! Huge congrats on your first Blaze release!
I’ve definitely read books I’ve had to put down because the characters drove me crazy. There’s a stack on my bookshelf right now, each with a bookmark stuck somewhere in the first two chapters, and I doubt I’ll ever get around to finishing them.
Oh, and I’m glad to hear about that four-submission road to HQ, because it sounds terribly familiar. LOL
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Welcome to the Jungle! Congrats on your new release. I love how books flow, because i imagine the characters acting in my mind like a movie… it needs to flow.
By the way I agree with most of the ladies about your cover! :flamer:
Oh boy is he hot! 
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Elle, huge congrats on your first Blaze! That sure is a winner of a cover! :wink: And just a reader, but your thoughts on characters and motivation definitely make sense to me–I definitely have put books down where I can’t get into the heads of the hero/heroine! I agree that some backstory is important, and that sure, I read to be people that I might actually ever even speak to, but still, it works way better when there’s a click and I feel like I might actually understand them! Looking forward to drooling over–I mean–reading Body Check!
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Welcome, Elle. I have read books where I’ve questioned the characters’ motivations, but it takes a lot for me to toss out a book. I usually stick with it to the end (or try to anyway).
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I agree that the motivation and everything else in a book needs to make sense or it’s just not gonna work for me.
And this book sounds awesome. I can’t wait to read it!
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Motivation is definitely an important part of any story. I have definitely come across books where the motivation behind certain actions leaves me scratching my head or wanting to yell at the hero or heroine for their stupidity. Those books are the ones that get set aside to give away and never even get close to my keeper shelf.
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i dont rember. congrats on yur blaze ilove blaze, the cover is hot and i love sports. s o congrts great o see u here and an pens bolg. count me in.
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So, it sounds like everyone agrees that motivation is super important, huh? And again, huge thanks for all your great words about my cover!
And Avery, keep being patient–I KNOW you’ll be joining the ranks of Blaze authors soon!
Sorry I’ve been AWOL all night–I got caught up watching episodes of LOST and before I knew it, it was almost one in the morning here–eeek! But LOST is worth it–any fans out there? If so, are you not totally rooting for Sawyer and Juliet to hook up?!
Anyway, I’m calling it a night, but tomorrow morning I’m putting all the commenters names in a hat (I’ve already written down everyone until now, on little pink mini post-its LOL!). Since it’s not one in the morning for all you west coasters, I’ll add any extra names into my hat tomorrow. So check back tomorrow for the winner!
And thank you to the Monkeys for having me here today! I had a blast!
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I’d already spotted Body Check on the Harlequin website and added it to the to read list.
As I’m a reader, I had never thought of stories from the perspective of the hero or heroine’s motivation. However having read what has been said, it makes sense of why there are books that just don’t seem to appeal when I read them while others make sense.
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Just pulled a name out of my hat and the winner of Body Check is…
AMANDA!
Congrats, Amanda. Send me an email at elle@ellekennedy.com to claim your prize.