Write a Western in 30 Days by Morton Nik;

Author:Morton, Nik; [Morton, Nik]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1210661
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing Limited
Published: 2013-06-28T00:00:00+00:00

Motivation

As can be seen in the samples of backstory, there are several instances where character motivation has been embedded. People generally don’t do something without a reason. They’re motivated by pride, greed, altruism, love, anger, jealousy, hate and a lot more besides.

Lydia hates Mexicans, because her husband found love and solace in a Mexican woman’s arms. The child of that union was Corbin, of course – so she doesn’t like him, either – his mixed race is a constant affront to her. So her past shapes how she feels towards the Mexican workers at the silver mine. Her past provides her with powerful motivation for her current actions and intent.

Certainly, incidents or people in their past might return to haunt them. By building a past for your characters, they cease to be made of cardboard. Within a short while, they’ll seem alive.

Somerset Maugham has said that every action of a character must be the result of a definite cause – significantly related to the entire fiction, of course.

Each motive must be in keeping with the character’s behaviour pattern that you’ve established. Otherwise, you lose credibility.

Conflict

Without conflict of some kind, there is no story. The conflict doesn’t have to be life or death – but it must test your hero or heroine to the utmost. How the protagonist rises above the conflict emphasises that character’s major emotional trait.

Each test must be a crisis – a critical time in the protagonist’s life.

There have to be obstacles in the character’s way, making the test difficult.

Your characters must be in conflict – whether with their consciences, their families or neighbours or the antagonist.

Conflict types:

Supernatural

Human

Other entities – animals, wildlife etc.

Non-living entities – things and objects of every kind

Natural forces – time, the elements, disease

Social forces – economic conditions, politics, morality, religion etc.

Inner self – conscience, belief system, loyalties and repressed self

All of the above conflict types can be used in a western – yes, even the supernatural!

That conflict keeps the pages turning. Introduce conflict of some kind early and pile it on throughout the book, saving the greatest obstacle for the end.

In the first paragraph of the Prologue in The $300 Man, the protagonist Corbin Molina is faced with serious conflict. He’s being robbed at gunpoint on a train.

Naturally, I wanted Corbin’s hook to be seen by the reader as soon as possible, so I managed that in the second slightly long paragraph.

Perched on the edge of his aisle seat on the right-hand side of the swaying railway carriage, Corbin was coiled like a spring, biding his time, ready to jump the robbers. The money didn’t concern him too much; it was the opened envelope Granger had taken with the cash: if the train-robber read the letter inside, he’d more than likely shoot Corbin where he sat. A thin-lipped smile was the only expression on his reddish-brown features as he held his arms aloft, the left terminating in a stump encased by a metal band and brandishing a hook. Further up the carriage was a forest of upheld arms.

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