GMC – Goal, Motivation & Conflict – A Classic Writing Book

GMC is the Best Book on the Topic! Easy to Read, Easy to Learn, Easy to Apply!

Author Name Dixon, Debra

Title Goal, Motivation & Conflict

Binding Hardback

Book Condition New

Size 6x9

Publisher Gryphon Books for Writers 1996

The material covered in GMC is not new, in fact, it is very well known. Usually this material is covered in one chapter in "How To" books on writing. The author, Debra Dixon, even acknowledges this when she points out that GMC has many other formulations. 

“Goal – desire, want, need, ambition, purpose

 Motivation – drive, backstory, impetus, incentive

 Conflict – trouble, tension, friction, villain, roadblock”

James Scott Bell even adds a fourth item to his list in, “Plot and Structure”:  LOCK:  Lead, Objective, Confrontation and Knockout I like the “Knockout” addition. That’s writing a knockout ending to better sell your next book or books from your backlist. 

What makes Debra Dixon’s GMC so valuable is that it is written by someone who has conducted many workshops. Someone who has received constant feedback. It’s written in first person conversational English. It is easy to undersand. Easy to remember. And easy to apply. Debra Dixon is an excellent teacher.

There is another very important point to devoting an entire book to this material: knowing and understanding GMC concepts and then applying them in practice forces a writer to do many other things right – without even knowing or having to learn them. This makes GMC highly leveraged knowledge. The material is so central to everything else a writer needs to know to write a novel, that I think it should be the first book a beginning writer reads. 

GMC is so well written to convey its subject matter that I am using the same 'reader friendly', first person. POV as a guide for my book, "RPP, Rewards Per Page" which I hope will be finished by the end of March.

I expect that most serious writers will already have a copy and have read GMC. However, I think it’s a good idea to read GMC  every so often. If you go to Amazon you might think the book is out of print but actually you can buy it directly from the publisher for $19.95 – a real bargain!

GMC is the Best Book on the Topic! Easy to Read, Easy to Learn, Easy to Apply!