Goal, Motivation, Conflict, and Stakes
Resources associated with the Loft Literary Center class
March–April 2026
March–April 2026
to prepare for week 2 (3/31)
1) Read "A Star Without Shine," a short story by Naomi Kritzer (wondering about goal, motivation, conflict, and stakes!).
2) Choose a set of story goals to work on during our class. This might be for a novel/novella/short story/play/whatever that you’re already working on, for one you’d maybe like to start, or for a zero-stakes idea that you’re simply using to play around with GMC&S in our class—whatever sounds most fun and useful to you! Draft story goals for your main characters, think about them a bit, and (remembering the ideas and tips that came up during our first class session) tweak them if you have time. Have access to these during class.
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to prepare for week 3 (4/7)
1) Read "In Which Madame Esmerelda Makes Predictions for the New Year," a piece of flash fiction by Courtney Milan (wondering about goal, motivation, conflict, and stakes!).
2) Write a diary entry, letter, therapist conversation, prayer, or other very personal account of one character’s understanding of their own motivation (using one of the characters and story goals from last week’s homework). Then write a paragraph or two about how accurate you think that understanding is. What do you, the writer, know about this character’s motivation? What do you wonder?
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to prepare for week 4 (4/7)
1) Read "End of a Thread," a piece of flash fiction by 'Nathan Burgoine (wondering about goal, motivation, conflict, and stakes!).
2) Write a list of fifteen things that logically need to happen in a story with the story goals, motivations, and barriers (conflicts) you’ve been working up. Fifteen is an arbitrary number, but arbitrary goals can be helpful—it’s deliberately a lot! Start out with the obvious huge plot points that are required by the goal, motivation, and conflict, but also see if you can include smaller events. Not random stuff, events/scenes/interactions that readers will expect or that the story demands because these are the GMC. Don’t worry about the order yet.
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to hear about other classes and resources
My newsletter goes out about once every other month and includes all my upcoming Loft classes; you can sign up here if you'd like.
(Also, if you're interested in rewatching them for a deeper think, here are the Bluey episodes I expect we'll watch during sessions 2 and 3: "Pavlova" and "Cubby.")
1) Read "A Star Without Shine," a short story by Naomi Kritzer (wondering about goal, motivation, conflict, and stakes!).
2) Choose a set of story goals to work on during our class. This might be for a novel/novella/short story/play/whatever that you’re already working on, for one you’d maybe like to start, or for a zero-stakes idea that you’re simply using to play around with GMC&S in our class—whatever sounds most fun and useful to you! Draft story goals for your main characters, think about them a bit, and (remembering the ideas and tips that came up during our first class session) tweak them if you have time. Have access to these during class.
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to prepare for week 3 (4/7)
1) Read "In Which Madame Esmerelda Makes Predictions for the New Year," a piece of flash fiction by Courtney Milan (wondering about goal, motivation, conflict, and stakes!).
2) Write a diary entry, letter, therapist conversation, prayer, or other very personal account of one character’s understanding of their own motivation (using one of the characters and story goals from last week’s homework). Then write a paragraph or two about how accurate you think that understanding is. What do you, the writer, know about this character’s motivation? What do you wonder?
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to prepare for week 4 (4/7)
1) Read "End of a Thread," a piece of flash fiction by 'Nathan Burgoine (wondering about goal, motivation, conflict, and stakes!).
2) Write a list of fifteen things that logically need to happen in a story with the story goals, motivations, and barriers (conflicts) you’ve been working up. Fifteen is an arbitrary number, but arbitrary goals can be helpful—it’s deliberately a lot! Start out with the obvious huge plot points that are required by the goal, motivation, and conflict, but also see if you can include smaller events. Not random stuff, events/scenes/interactions that readers will expect or that the story demands because these are the GMC. Don’t worry about the order yet.
-----------------------
to hear about other classes and resources
My newsletter goes out about once every other month and includes all my upcoming Loft classes; you can sign up here if you'd like.
(Also, if you're interested in rewatching them for a deeper think, here are the Bluey episodes I expect we'll watch during sessions 2 and 3: "Pavlova" and "Cubby.")
