Discussion: Are You a Jerk (to Your Characters)?

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I’m relatively sure that if my characters were real, most of them would hate me.

There are few things I enjoy more than taking my characters’ perfectly peaceful lives and ripping them to shreds, then setting the shreds on fire and throwing the ashes into Mount Vesuvius. I love taking terrible situations and making them worse, and making my characters feel entirely hopeless before they rise above and overcome their difficulties.

I love scarred, conflicted characters—whether it’s emotional, physical or mental scars. Sometimes they start off scarred at the beginning, sometimes I inflict the damage within the plot, but in the end, I find those kinds of characters much more fun to write and read about, and so I’m rather cruel to my characters.

But the thing is, I truly believe it’s necessary to bring out your inner sadist, at least to some extent, while writing.

Every story requires conflict. The magnitude of that conflict will from genre to genre (and even within your book), but without conflict, there isn’t a story. The ability to take an initial conflict and make it worse (then worse than that) can take story from good to amazing. It can lead to essential urgency to keep reading, and at the end, when your characters overcome the insurmountable odds you set them against, their victories are that much more memorable.

I don’t hesitate to admit that I’m a jerk to my characters. I’m proud of it, even.

But now I want to hear from you: are you a jerk to your characters? 

Twitter-sized bites: 

Are you a jerk to your characters? Why or why not? Join the discussion on @Ava_Jae's blog! (Click to tweet) 

Do you bring out your inner sadist while writing? Here's why you may want to. (Click to tweet)

How to Find Your Inner Sadist

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Here's a secret: I'm relatively convinced that every writer has a sadist buried deep down inside—after all, you are writing a story where you make things as bad as possible for your characters, aren't you? Some writers, however, may find it a little more difficult to tap into their dark side than others.

If you're one of those struggling writers, have no fear. You'll be embracing your inner sadist in no time.

It starts by taking a look at what you've written (or plotted) thus far. Let's say your main character is a high school student who is more than a little familiar with the principal and pink detention slips. Her problem is that if she gets written up one more time, her parents won't allow her to go out with her friends for the rest of the month. As it's her best friend's birthday this weekend, she has to behave herself.

When facing your main character's current problem, the best thing you can do as a writer is ask yourself how you can make this as difficult as possible for your protagonist at every turn.

Let's take a look at a couple of things that could complicate matters for our protagonist:

• She has a hot temper.
• She forgot to set her alarm so she wakes up late.
• She runs to the bus stop and misses the bus.
• She runs to her first period class and is not only late, but slips and falls on another student when she enters the classroom.
• The student she fell on is her ex-boyfriend— who is now dating a girl that hates her.
• In her rush to get out the door, she forgot her homework on the kitchen table— but her teacher doesn't believe her and thinks she didn't do it again.
• The ex's girlfriend sees her fall on him, thinks it was done on purpose and starts an argument with her.

The list goes on.

The point is, it's your job as a writer to chase your characters up a tree infested with rabid squirrels, throw rocks at them, then set the tree on fire and make it rain acid. There shouldn't be any easy escape routes for your characters, or anything easily achieved for that matter, even if it's something as menial as getting to school on time. 

In short, you need to be mean to your characters all the time. Make them fight for everything—even at rest their thoughts should be conflicted. Then, when they finally get what they want, make the next goal even more difficult.

When editing, go through your manuscript and take a look at your scenes. Have you been too nice to your characters? Is there any way you could make it even worse for your protagonist than you already have? If the answer is yes, it’s time for you to get to work. You know what to do.

What books can you think of that have successfully employed this technique?

Every Writer (Should Be) a Sadist

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If you're a writer, you're a sadist. I don't necessarily mean when it comes to your friends and family (although I won’t pretend there aren't any writers who are sadists in that aspect of their lives as well), but when it comes to your characters, you should be digging deep to find your inner sadist. If you don't, well, you're missing out.

You see, the most interesting and exciting stories are those in which everything that could conceivably go wrong for the protagonist does— and then some.

Don't believe me? Let's take a quick look at the beginning of the Harry Potter series.

In the very beginning of The Sorcerer's (or Philosopher's) Stone, we meet young Harry, who lives in the cupboard under the stairs at his highly unlikable aunt and uncle's house. As a wizard who doesn't know he's a wizard living with his Muggle (non-magic) relatives, it's expected that there should be a couple of problems along the way.

An inexperienced writer might have skipped most of the beginning introductory things that Rowling included and gone straight to the inciting incident--Harry receiving his letter from Hogwarts. There are very few problems in this kind of beginning so I imagine it'd be a pretty short first chapter.

A good writer might have created a couple of problems for Harry such as using his annoying cousin Dudley to lead to an argument (and punishment) from his aunt and uncle and perhaps making it more difficult for Harry to receive his letter.

But master writer Rowling takes out all the stops and makes it difficult for Harry at every turn. Dudley isn't just annoying— he's a spoiled brat and a bully who can do no wrong in his parents' eyes. When Harry is permitted to go to the zoo, he accidentally releases a snake into the public. When his letters start to come in, his aunt and uncle aren't just irritated— they're downright terrified and make it their mission to keep the letters from reaching Harry, which of course eventually leads to them running away until a certain half-giant with a pink umbrella hunts them down.

Much more interesting than the version from the inexperienced non-sadist writer, I think.

But creating one problem after another for the protagonist doesn't always come naturally to every writer, and when it doesn't, it may be time to sit down and tap into your inner sadist. How to do so will be covered in Friday's post.

Have you tapped into your inner sadist?