What role does ‘motivation’ play in mystery and suspense writing?
Motivation causes a person to move toward a goal. Always a good thing in mystery plotting and suspense building. In fiction, if you do not get your character(s) ‘properly’ and ‘fully’ motivated, either via cattle prod or bomb, toward a goal, you have no story, no plot development. It falls into the category of a flatline story. Perhaps a mood piece, but there be no seismograph or rollercoaster action at work. You must move the story forward, which means characters have to get out of their seats, off the porch, off the beam and out into the scary place where they must face all the horrid demons from self-doubt to a serial killer on the loose. Character X accuses my heroine of something she did not do, which in turn motivates her to prove otherwise, to prove herself (worthy, brave, courageous, bold), while another character Z, the killer, is telling her she can’t do a damn thing about the fact he will kill again. This motivates her to struggle harder, to be smarter next time, to outfox t
