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I was trying to come up with a top ten or top five list of writing books I could recommend, but I have so many that I got overwhelmed. Instead, I decided I'd focus one book at a time and do blog posts whenever a new one popped into my mind. This first week, though, I have two--one today and one for next week.
This first book is one I read in the 1990s, but it's every bit as valid today was it was when I read it.
GMC: Goal, Motivation, and Conflict by Debra Dixon
GMC is my light bulb moment book. My writing was professional enough to be published, but my characters didn't have strong goals or motivations. Maybe not even a strong enough conflict to carry a full story. Because of these issues, I received rejections from the NYC publishers I submitted to.
I'm not even sure how I stumbled onto this book, but I'm grateful that I did. After reading it, I created my own GMC grid and printed it out. I sat down and filled it in before writing my next book. This also happened to be the first book I sold. Not that it was easy. Not that I didn't have to work through some major revisions. Not that my characters didn't throw surprises at me.
All of the above happened on Ravyn's Flight. The difference was that I had a much better idea of how my characters would react to the events of the story.
I still have my copy of GMC on the shelf, and when I met Debra Dixon at a writer's conference, I swooned all over her. Not only because of GMC, but also because she wrote one of my favorite category romances. Bad to the Bone was released by Loveswept in the 1990s, but is available as an ebook now.
This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something, I'll earn a small commission. There is no cost to you.
