As for your challenge, I’m going to vote no on Card trying to show in his passage. There’s no way to show what would have happened. But it’s very Ender for him to be in the middle of a life-threatening situation and already be second-guessing himself. The telling sacrifices pace, but it reinforces character.

You say: The Reaction is: “Ryan kept his pistol centered on the man’s chest”. The Motivation is: “until he saw what had happened to his head.”

But isn’t the reaction to here to “The 9mm slug knocked the man backward as though from a hard punch…” or even to “Both men fired at the same instant.”? Then the next part, “…until he saw what happened to his head” is not motivation but is more reaction, as in “Ryan kept his pistol centered on the man’s chest. He saw what happened to his head. ‘Oh God!’…

I hope you’ll take on some of these questions in your final post.

Randy sez: No, remember that Motivations and Reactions alternate forever. The Reaction is internal and subjective. The Motivation is external and objective. The bit about “he saw what happened to his head” is exactly what a videocamera mounted on Ryan’s shoulder would have seen. This is objective reporting of something external to Ryan, so it is a Motivation. In fact, it’s a perfect Motivation for Ryan’s next Reaction, which is to come down fast from the Xtreme adrenaline rush he’s been on. His enemy is dead. He doesn’t have to fight anymore. This is Motivation.