Must vs Can't

I was checking out Kristin Nelson's PubRants blog this evening. Of course I multi-tasked because I was eating supper at the same time. Agent Kristin wrote about encountering complication masquerading as conflict in manuscript submissions.

Then in one of the comments, writer Linnea Sinclair shared an inspiration for her workshop which she got from noted SF author Jacqueline Lichtenberg. In a nutshell, the hero/heroine MUST complete a task that the antagonist CAN'T allow.

I've been working at internalizing Goal, Motivation and Conflict since the retreat, opening myself to eventual gene mutation so that I will become one with GMC. The soil was ready for the seed. I read the blog comment and 'bing'! Insta-sunflower.

I turned to my husband and read it out to him. He said, "That's just like an acting exercise we used to do. One of us would be told privately by the teacher that he HAD to stay on the stage for the upcoming improv scene, no matter what, to do a specific task. The other person was told he HAD to get the person to leave the stage no matter what."

More 'bing' 'bing' 'bing'! Just like a slot machine. Suddenly my WIP seems more accessible. Suddenly my lungs inhale the heady scent of GMC as never before.

Thank you to all the previous workshops I've had on GMC. Thank you to Christine's most recent one. Thank you Kristin, Linnea and Jacqueline. Thank you to all of my teachers. The student was ready.