Writing Motivation-reaction Units (MRUs According to Swain)
Months ago, I broke down scene structure according to Dwight V. Swain, who arguably put together the most popular approach to scene structure. Today, Iâm breaking down his second-most popular writing approach: motivation-reaction units (or âMRUsâ). Again, Iâve waited so long to cover this topic, in part because I wanted to study it straight from Swainâs own bookâTechniques of the Selling Writer âfirst.
Motivation-reaction units are used at the line level of writingâtheyâre about getting the story written on the page properly and most effectively. Some writers have the tendency to write events in the wrong order, at the sentence level. For example, they may write:
Carrie screamed at the top of her lungs when Barryâs hunting knife sunk deep into her thigh.
There is nothing technically, grammatically wrong with this sentence. But on the micro-level, it probably renders the events in the wrong order. The reader is picturing Carrie screaming before Barry stabs her. To make the experience more accurate, itâd be better to rearrange the sentence:
When Barryâs hunting knife sunk deep into her thigh, Carrie screamed at the top of her lungs.
Or you could even write it simply as two sentences:
Barryâs hunting knife sunk deep into Carrieâs thigh. She screamed at the top of her lungs.
Motivation-reaction units are all about putting things in the proper order so that the reader experiences the story the same way the character doesâor nearly the same, anyway.
Unless you are writing a special kind of science fiction or fantasy scene, your character doesnât live in a void. A âmotivating stimulusâ is (to quote Swain) âanything outside your focal character to which he reacts.â It could be a sight, sound, smell, texture, tasteâit can be almost anything in the world. In my earlier example, Carrie is our focal character. Her motivating stimulus is Barry stabbing her thigh. This leads to a reaction: she screams.
The motivating stimulus comes before the reaction. And âŠ
Motivation + Reaction = Motivation-reaction Unit.
Swain writes, âEach unit indicates some change, however smallâchange in state of affairs, change in state of mind. Properly presented and executed, each one moves your story a step forward. Link unit to unit, one after another, and your prose picks up momentum [and builds]⊠. This situation cannot but develop!â
Human beings can react in multiple ways from the same motivating stimulus. But there is a chronological order in which we naturally react.
A bear stopped in the middle of the trail. âLetâs get out of here,â Harrison said. He jumped back, and his heart leaped into his throat.
Is there anything âwrongâ with these sentences?
Not technically, not grammatically.
But they donât render the experience most accurately.
Why? Because as human beings, our bodies involuntarily react before we can speak. So, itâd be more accurate to change the arrangement.
A bear stopped in the middle of the trail. Harrisonâs heart leaped into his throat, and he jumped back. âLetâs get out of here,â he said.
In Swainâs approach to MRUs, he outlines the natural reactions in this order:
FeelingââHarrisonâs heart leaped into his throatâ (this isnât a literal action, itâs a description of a feeling)
ActionââHe jumped backâ
SpeechâââLetâs get out of here.ââ
So we move from the most involuntary reaction to the most intentional reaction. We canât control our feelings. They are a natural response. Some of our actions are intentional, but many are more subconscious and instinctualâsuch as jumping back from a bear. Speech is almost always intentional. Harrison intends to say, âLetâs get out of here.â
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