The MRU
By Caroline Wigley
Motivational Reaction Unit/ Motivational Response Unit
An MRU can be used in any piece of creative writing prose.
The idea of an MRU comes from Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V Swain and all online articles seem to refer back to him.
What is an MRU?
An MRU is a 'mini-scene' as the word 'unit' might suggest.
The 'Motivation' is an event that can be heard, seen, smelled - experienced in some way.
e.g. the car was speeding along the road. This event triggers a Reaction in the character or characters experiencing the event.
A Reaction can have three parts:
a. the physiological reaction(s) - e.g. Jack was struck with fear
b. the reflexive action(s) - e.g. he stepped back into the shelter of the doorway
c. the rational response - e.g. he slunk into the shadows and prayed he wouldn't be seen
Broken down, these Reactions are basically
a. a feeling
b. an action
c. further action and/or (quite often) speech
Emotion is the key to an MRU - and an appropriate emotion is key.
All three Reaction types need not appear in each Unit, but at least one must follow a Motivation.
Picking the Motivation
This needs to be significant as far as the character/s is concerned:
It must be something that will trigger a reaction in the character/s Characters' personalities will influence what they see around them
It must be part of the plotline - a reader will assume that anything that appears in a story is important
NO WASTED WORDS
Reaction/s must be
- In keeping with the character/s own character/s and personalities
- Be natural (unless you're trying to get over that the character has some unnatural traits - e.g. ASD),
- Must move on the plot/further the story
By suggesting a likely reaction to another similar situation - e.g. a woman who reacts violently to a rude remark is unlikely to let a door slammed in her face pass unnoticed
By further describing the character's/characters/ own character/characters What the character does in reaction is part of the plot
Writing the Motiviation:
Most importantly this sentence does not include the character So write a sentence without your character
The postman pushed the letters through the letterbox. Writing the Reaction:
The Motivation sentence is followed by one or more sentences that are about the character
Sally froze. After a moment she plucked up courage and called out, 'Mum, the post has come/
The simplest MRU has two sentences:
The postman pushed the letters through the letterbox.
Sally froze.
But equally a Reaction can be much longer - a paragraph in length.
The postman pushed the letters through the letterbox.
Sally froze. After a moment she plucked up courage and called out, 'Mum, the post has come.' But she remained standing at the foot of the stairs too scared to move towards the letters lying on the mat.
Building MR Units
All writing must have an objective - i.e. there must be a reason for including this scene with Sally. Perhaps she's expecting bad news-or even good news and is scared it might not be there!
One MRU may not in itself move the story/plot along far enough.
The postman pushed the letters through the letterbox.
Sally froze. After a moment she plucked up courage and called vut, 'Mum, the post has come.' But she remained standing at the foot of the stairs.
But here we have the storyline stopped. To move on there must be another event to stop Sally standing at the foot of the stairs.
Mrs Jones called out, 'Has your letter come? Go on, read it, it's best to know the truth/ Motivation
Scared, Sally crept towards the doorway. She stood staring down at the letters on the doormat Reaction
The clock struck ten. Motivation Sally jumped. Reaction
'I'm going to be late,' Sally gasped and snatched up the letters at her feet She tore open the envelope with her name typed across the front. Reaction
Objective - Obstacle - Outcome
All writing must have conflict - barriers, obstacles which character/s must overcome to get to their objective.
In the above example the writer wants Sally to read a letter that arrives in the post. She is clearly scared and so the writer needs to present a situation in which Sally feels she must open the letter.
a. Her mother's insistence
b. It's 10.00 and she hasn't time to mess around
Objective - get Sally to open letter
Obstacle - she doesn't want to
Outcome - she's opened it
To build your story you need a series of O-O-Os - Objective-Obstacle-Outcome units.
Immediacy
An MRU also helps to build tension and immediacy into your writing.
Compare the above scene with:
Sally saw the post had come. She froze at the foot of the stairs. She was too scared to see if her letter had arrived, but hearing her mum asking from the sitting room whether it had come reminded her that she should. She crept towards the door but still couldn't pluck up the courage to look at the names on the letters. When she heard the clock strike ten, though, she jumped and gasped, I'm going to be late,' and snatched up her letters. She tore open the envelope with her name typed across the front.
Readers know that an 'event' noticed will trigger a reaction - so are expecting one.
They also have the effect of making writing more 'natural' - e.g. if 'x' is happening, you think, 'x is happening'-you don't think 'I am noticing that x is happening' which is what happens if you write in the form 'Sally saw the post had come', etc.
Knock on Effect
As the main character/s react to the external motivation, so other characters react to the main character/s' behaviour.
An MRU is a Tool
Properly used, an MRU is invaluable.
AND YOU ARE USING THEM ALL THE TIME - as with lots of writing skills this is really to raise awareness of this particular tool.
It's worth remembering too that MRUs do not have to be dramatic - high tension. An MRU is any series of sentences in which there is a motivational event and which makes the character react.
An MRU is an excellent way to 'show not tell'.
But writing should flow and writing to a formula can make prose seem jumpy and disjointed. Dwight V Swain suggests it is best to 'write in whatever manner comes easiest for you, paying no attention to any rules whatever.
Then, go back over your copy and check to make sure that each reaction is motivated; that each motivating stimulus gets a reaction/
He concludes, 'Do this conscientiously on a hundred pages of copy, and on the hundred-and-first there will be few errors in motivation or reaction.'
Useful online articles:
http://www.writinR.com/main/books/entry id/312813 http://mikalhaaheimonrme.net/index files7Page821.htm