: Re: I'm using the same formula for stakes over and over - is this a problem? First of all, let me explain that I am a plotter, and that I am an extreme case. This means that I develop my

@Caterina108

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This method is that whatever the hero can't lose or have happen, he did lose or have happen somewhere in the past, and is now living with the result, and either cannot do so again, or is hoping to atone for what he did.

It is a perfectly valid approach to developing a single character. Your problem is that you decided to turn it into a method (a particular form of procedure for accomplishing or approaching something, especially a systematic or established one), which by definition will turn all your characters, whose mentality is shaped by the same mold, look pretty much the same.

Some might argue that many people in real life are pretty much alike. Whether or not this is true, it is irrelevant to fiction, because your fictional characters--all of them--must serve different purpose in your story, and stand clearly apart from one another.

There is no point of having character A hate character B, because B's clansmen killed A's parents ten years ago, and B hate A, because A's brothers raped B's sister in retaliation the year after. They are basically the same character, and the sooner one kills another, the better off the story will be with just one.

Call it a method or not, you have to use a different one for each and every character you create.

...go through some of your favorite books ... and try to pick apart what the hero's drive is...

That will certainly help. Another thing is to observe real people and figure out where their motivations and goals are coming from. Not everyone has a dramatic life-defining experience in the past.

I forgot, in what movie or TV series a serial killer says: "No, I was not abused and tortured as a child. I just really like what I do..."

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