I’ve been thinking about motive and yearning in writing. Part of the prescriptive of writing is that the hero/heroine has a goal, which is pretty obvious and a need (want, desire, yearning) that he may be unaware of, but is crucial to the story. I love the word yearning. It is poetic. And, to me it is descriptive of the gut-wrenching realization that a character must finally come to see in a really well-done novel. I am aiming for more yearning—almost realized—in the work in progress, but an author learns along with the character.
“A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.”
— Burrhus Frederic Skinner, 1904-1990, commonly known as B. F. Skinner, American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher, born March 20th, in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania.
