Comments on: Fiction Writing: Hurt Your Characters

By: Are You Afraid of Hurting Your Characters? : Capturing Fantasy: Where Role Playing and Creative Writing Meet New World of Darkness

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:02:35 +0000

[...] go out there. Do something that hurts. Break your character if you have to. And abandon the notion of the Disney-live-happily-ever-after [...]

By: Larry Brooks

Larry Brooks — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:38:58 +0000

Another way to think about hurting your characters... is to threaten their hope. Their hope for survival, their hope for love, their hope for money, their hope for happiness. The central issue of dramatic fiction has and always will be stakes. At any given moment we as authors need to ask ourselves, "what's at stake for this character, and what is threatening whatever is at stake?" All things spring from that question, because the decisions and actions that a character takes in response to the threat, the opposition, or the chance that their hope(s) will be dashed, is the essence of story, the stuff of character arc. Hurt them? Have at it. Threaten them, even better. Put their hope up for grabs, though, in context to the pain, and now you've got something to work with. Larry Brooks´s last blog post...Writing Better Fiction: Inside the Six Core Competencies

By: Brad’s Reader » Blog Archive » Friday Link Love 3/21

Brad’s Reader » Blog Archive » Friday Link Love 3/21 — Sun, 17 May 2009 21:25:35 +0000

[...] Fiction Writing: Hurt Your CharactersThere’s an old saying "No pain, no gain" (or something like that). Yet many writers are afraid to send their characters to the depths of hell and back. Okay, you probably don’t have to go that far. But as this post points out, hurting your beloved characters a little can be a good thing. [...]

By: AdahLael

AdahLael — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:00:03 +0000

Thank you sir James! I stumbled across this post on the sidebar, after finding your blog hunting around after “selling e-books” or some such on Google. And I laughed like a mean bad-guy! Mua-ha-ha-ha-ha! I have found another one! Another writer who knows how to make a story actually tick, combating the scourge of the boring book, who is improving the writing community one on-line writing lesson at a time!

I just started a little website with that goal in mind: to put out there everything I know and have learned about writing for free, just because I feel like it (http://www.biggsbooks.net/lessons.html). Your title is a lot better than mine. Hurt your characters. Yah. Darn, I should have thought of that. I’m probably going to set up a “good links” section and I’ll have to link to this page.

By: James

James — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:08:36 +0000

@ B-chan – Well, we don’t go around spreading gratuitous violence just to beat our characters up… but trauma’s good for the soul. Never fear.

By: B-chan

B-chan — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:00:25 +0000

Finally, someone else who believes in mangling, maiming, torturing and otherwise finding an assortment of physical, psychological and emotional trauma to inflict upon one's characters. Personally, I like to slowly assassinate the character then go Hamlet on the whole cast, leaving one or two members of the peanut gallery to wrap things up. B-chans last blog post..Perfect Irony

By: Men with Pens Web Content Writers and Freelance Writing Services

Men with Pens Web Content Writers and Freelance Writing Services — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:03:48 +0000

[...] But we warn you â€“ it’s addictive. You’ll always want to turn the page to see what happens next. You’ll fall in love with your character and you’ll look forward to that break in the day when you can post. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll bite your nails. [...]

By: --Deb

--Deb — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 13:23:27 +0000

I have a real problem causing my characters pain–the ones I like, anyway. But then, I live in my own little sunshine-and-light world anyway and try not to dwell on the negative stuff that I can’t help, which makes writing it convincingly tricky. Just like descriptive passages–those are the ones that my eyes automatically skim over when reading, and so when it comes time to write one, I’m stuck! How can you write something you don’t want to even think about? (“His father has to DIE? But, that’s awful! I can’t do that!”)

–Deb’s last blog post..Match it for Pratchett

By: James

James — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 10:51:38 +0000

@ Melissa – Harry and I were very, very surprised at how many people do struggle with this issue, hence this post. And yup, we’re covering plot this week too.

It’s said, too, that there are only seven types of plot. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy saves world… I forget the list. So I wouldn’t break my head over coming up with some new plot – it’s the richness of the characters and the individual string of events that make a difference.

By: Melissa Donovan

Melissa Donovan — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 09:55:14 +0000

This is one of my big struggles in fiction writing. Oh, and I can't seem to come up with a plot other than "the world is about to end." I just feel like every plot I think of has been done to death. I'm sure you guys will be addressing plot, or so I'm hoping. I will hurt my characters. This is a "do or do not, there is no try" thing. I will, I will. Melissa Donovan's last blog post..Jeff Buckley: Grace