Tell me what you want, what you really, really want - On desire lines
1. What's a desire line?
People are lazy, in general. Characters are lazy, too. To get them moving, you need something to motivate them. In writer-speak, this is often called a "desire line."
In everyday language, desire lines are often called desire paths. Wikipedia gives this definition: "A desire path (also known as a desire line, social trail, goat track or bootleg trail) can be a path created as a consequence of foot or bicycle traffic. The path usually represents the shortest or most easily navigated route between an origin and destination." The writing definition is related: Your character wants to get somewhere (or get something) and will want to do so in the easiest way possible. As author Mark O'Bannon wrote in an article entitled "How To Fix A Story - The Desire Line" on his Better Storytelling web site: "A story is about a character who is trying to solve a problem. Every hero is on a quest. To rescue the princess, to find the hidden treasure, to defeat the empire. The desire line is known as the spine of the story and it forms the tracks that the story runs over. The character’s desire must be clear, specific and definite."
2. What makes a good desire line? Is more better?
Your story's power stems from your character's desire line, so bigger desires are usually better. A desire for love is a lot stronger than a desire for a grilled cheese sandwich, generally. If you think about aspirations in the Sims video games, your characters earn a lot more satisfaction from achieving their big goals. You need a big goal to sustain an entire story. Your character may well have more than one desire line. Most commonly, there is a conscious desire line as well as an unconscious desire line. The conscious desire line tends to be more concrete, such as winning a championship or moving away, while the unconscious desire line may be more abstract, wanting recognition or freedom. Desire lines can support each other or conflict each other but need to belong to the same story. That is, they can run parallel or perpendicular but not all over the place. (They form the spine, so you don't really want to give your reader scoliosis.) If you're still not convinced of the importance of desire lines, think of the lyrics to "Wannabe." Whether the Spice Girls or the Glee cast version comes to mind first, the lyrics are the same:
Now don't go wasting my precious time,
Get your act together we could be just fine
People have a lot of choices for their time these days. If you want them to spend time on your story, you need a clear desire line that's worth their time.
3.So I know what my character wants. How do I communicate the desire line to my readers?
When the path kind of a desire line is created, i.e. the foot or bicycle kind, other people begin to see the path and use it, too. Again, we're lazy, right? So if some of the work's already been done on that path, it's easier for us to travel. In your story, your character's desire line needs to show so it can help guide readers. Without the beginnings of a path, readers will go all over the place and feel lost.
The desire line must be laid in the beginning before your reader starts forging his or her own trail, but there's lots of flexibility in how it's done. I wouldn't recommend having your character state it flat out in most cases, since "Hi, my name is Joe and I want to be a park ranger" isn't the most interesting of openings. This is very valuable as side writing to help you get to know your character, but that's another topic and our desire right now is to master desire lines, right?
So let's look at some examples of how authors have handled desire lines. Some authors plant a big sign right at the beginning:
In Inexcusable, a novel about a young man named Keir who has to face some horrible truths about himself, novelist Chris Lynch drops his protagonist's desire line in the very first line: "The way it looks is not the way it is" (Lynch 1). Keir is desperate to believe that he is a good guy, that he could not have raped his childhood friend and long-time crush. Characters do not always achieve their desires and Keir doesn't get his. Over the course of the novel it becomes clear to the reader and also to Keir that he is not, in fact, a good guy. But his desire cuts the path through a story of excuses.
In Walter Dean Myers's novel, Slam, we also feel Slam's love for the game right away: "Basketball is my thing. I can hoop. Case closed. I'm six four and I got the moves, the eye, and the heart. You can take my game to the bank and wait around for the interest. With me it's not like playing a game, it's like the only time I'm being for real." (Myers 1) Slam hasn't outright said he needs to play ball, but you got that, didn't you?
Some authors go more for the Hansel and Gretel bread crumb route. The following from Laura Buzo's Love and Other Perishable Items is a long example, but notice the underlined sections:
"I'm writing a play," says Chris, leaning over the counter of my cash register. "It's called Death of a Customer. Needless to say, it's set here." He jerks his head toward the aisles lined with groceries and lit with harsh fluorescent bars.
It takes me a moment to place the reference, but then I remember Death of a Salesman from when Dad took me to see the play last year.
"Sounds good."
"Want to be in it?"
I nod eagerly.
"Cool. We're going to the pub after work to workshop it. Your should come."
"Who--" I squeak. "Who's going?"
"Oh, Ed, Bianca, Donna...people."
I am only three weeks past my fifteenth birthday, but my braces came off a month ago, so I could possibly slip into a pub looks-wise. Trouble is, my scorching unease would give me away to the door guy, and even if by some miracle it didn't, I am terrified of interacting socially with my coworkers. Except Chris. (Buzo 2)
Fifteen-year-old Amelia's desire is clearly for Chris, and author Laura Buzo strengthens this on the following page as Amelia mentally debates spending two uncomfortable hours with her coworkers to get fifteen minutes alone with Chris on the walk home. And there's more. Check out the book and see how many subtle clues you can find on page 3.
Author Judy Blume actually has her main character, Katherine, deny her desire line in the beginning of Forever:
[Erica] propped herself up on one elbow and said, "You like him, don't you?"
"Don't be silly...we barely met." I rolled over, facing the wall.
"Yeah...but I can tell anyway."
"Go to sleep!" (Blume 3-4)
But since Blume has already given her readers bread crumbs such as Katherine noticing Michael's mole and watching him kiss another girl at midnight at the New Year's party, we know her true desire.
Yet another way to do it is to write a sort of zinger line a couple pages in. Veronica Roth does this in Divergent. We have a couple of pages that help build the world and set up family relationships, then Roth gives us this: "On these mornings when my brother makes breakfast, and my father's hand skims my hair as he reads the newspaper, and my mother hums as she clears the table--it is on these mornings that I feel guiltiest for wanting to leave them" (Roth 3). Bang!
In short, there's a lot of ways to get the message across. This is a mandatory element for the beginning, but go ahead and get creative with how you do it. When you're ready for a test, give your beginning to a trusted friend and see if he or she can tell what your character wants.
For extra credit (and more help):
How To Fix A Story - The Desire Line
People are lazy, in general. Characters are lazy, too. To get them moving, you need something to motivate them. In writer-speak, this is often called a "desire line."
In everyday language, desire lines are often called desire paths. Wikipedia gives this definition: "A desire path (also known as a desire line, social trail, goat track or bootleg trail) can be a path created as a consequence of foot or bicycle traffic. The path usually represents the shortest or most easily navigated route between an origin and destination." The writing definition is related: Your character wants to get somewhere (or get something) and will want to do so in the easiest way possible. As author Mark O'Bannon wrote in an article entitled "How To Fix A Story - The Desire Line" on his Better Storytelling web site: "A story is about a character who is trying to solve a problem. Every hero is on a quest. To rescue the princess, to find the hidden treasure, to defeat the empire. The desire line is known as the spine of the story and it forms the tracks that the story runs over. The character’s desire must be clear, specific and definite."
2. What makes a good desire line? Is more better?
Your story's power stems from your character's desire line, so bigger desires are usually better. A desire for love is a lot stronger than a desire for a grilled cheese sandwich, generally. If you think about aspirations in the Sims video games, your characters earn a lot more satisfaction from achieving their big goals. You need a big goal to sustain an entire story. Your character may well have more than one desire line. Most commonly, there is a conscious desire line as well as an unconscious desire line. The conscious desire line tends to be more concrete, such as winning a championship or moving away, while the unconscious desire line may be more abstract, wanting recognition or freedom. Desire lines can support each other or conflict each other but need to belong to the same story. That is, they can run parallel or perpendicular but not all over the place. (They form the spine, so you don't really want to give your reader scoliosis.) If you're still not convinced of the importance of desire lines, think of the lyrics to "Wannabe." Whether the Spice Girls or the Glee cast version comes to mind first, the lyrics are the same:
Now don't go wasting my precious time,
Get your act together we could be just fine
People have a lot of choices for their time these days. If you want them to spend time on your story, you need a clear desire line that's worth their time.
3.So I know what my character wants. How do I communicate the desire line to my readers?
When the path kind of a desire line is created, i.e. the foot or bicycle kind, other people begin to see the path and use it, too. Again, we're lazy, right? So if some of the work's already been done on that path, it's easier for us to travel. In your story, your character's desire line needs to show so it can help guide readers. Without the beginnings of a path, readers will go all over the place and feel lost.
The desire line must be laid in the beginning before your reader starts forging his or her own trail, but there's lots of flexibility in how it's done. I wouldn't recommend having your character state it flat out in most cases, since "Hi, my name is Joe and I want to be a park ranger" isn't the most interesting of openings. This is very valuable as side writing to help you get to know your character, but that's another topic and our desire right now is to master desire lines, right?
So let's look at some examples of how authors have handled desire lines. Some authors plant a big sign right at the beginning:
In Inexcusable, a novel about a young man named Keir who has to face some horrible truths about himself, novelist Chris Lynch drops his protagonist's desire line in the very first line: "The way it looks is not the way it is" (Lynch 1). Keir is desperate to believe that he is a good guy, that he could not have raped his childhood friend and long-time crush. Characters do not always achieve their desires and Keir doesn't get his. Over the course of the novel it becomes clear to the reader and also to Keir that he is not, in fact, a good guy. But his desire cuts the path through a story of excuses.
In Walter Dean Myers's novel, Slam, we also feel Slam's love for the game right away: "Basketball is my thing. I can hoop. Case closed. I'm six four and I got the moves, the eye, and the heart. You can take my game to the bank and wait around for the interest. With me it's not like playing a game, it's like the only time I'm being for real." (Myers 1) Slam hasn't outright said he needs to play ball, but you got that, didn't you?
Some authors go more for the Hansel and Gretel bread crumb route. The following from Laura Buzo's Love and Other Perishable Items is a long example, but notice the underlined sections:
"I'm writing a play," says Chris, leaning over the counter of my cash register. "It's called Death of a Customer. Needless to say, it's set here." He jerks his head toward the aisles lined with groceries and lit with harsh fluorescent bars.
It takes me a moment to place the reference, but then I remember Death of a Salesman from when Dad took me to see the play last year.
"Sounds good."
"Want to be in it?"
I nod eagerly.
"Cool. We're going to the pub after work to workshop it. Your should come."
"Who--" I squeak. "Who's going?"
"Oh, Ed, Bianca, Donna...people."
I am only three weeks past my fifteenth birthday, but my braces came off a month ago, so I could possibly slip into a pub looks-wise. Trouble is, my scorching unease would give me away to the door guy, and even if by some miracle it didn't, I am terrified of interacting socially with my coworkers. Except Chris. (Buzo 2)
Fifteen-year-old Amelia's desire is clearly for Chris, and author Laura Buzo strengthens this on the following page as Amelia mentally debates spending two uncomfortable hours with her coworkers to get fifteen minutes alone with Chris on the walk home. And there's more. Check out the book and see how many subtle clues you can find on page 3.
Author Judy Blume actually has her main character, Katherine, deny her desire line in the beginning of Forever:
[Erica] propped herself up on one elbow and said, "You like him, don't you?"
"Don't be silly...we barely met." I rolled over, facing the wall.
"Yeah...but I can tell anyway."
"Go to sleep!" (Blume 3-4)
But since Blume has already given her readers bread crumbs such as Katherine noticing Michael's mole and watching him kiss another girl at midnight at the New Year's party, we know her true desire.
Yet another way to do it is to write a sort of zinger line a couple pages in. Veronica Roth does this in Divergent. We have a couple of pages that help build the world and set up family relationships, then Roth gives us this: "On these mornings when my brother makes breakfast, and my father's hand skims my hair as he reads the newspaper, and my mother hums as she clears the table--it is on these mornings that I feel guiltiest for wanting to leave them" (Roth 3). Bang!
In short, there's a lot of ways to get the message across. This is a mandatory element for the beginning, but go ahead and get creative with how you do it. When you're ready for a test, give your beginning to a trusted friend and see if he or she can tell what your character wants.
For extra credit (and more help):
How To Fix A Story - The Desire Line