First off: a reminder about my appearance on Woozworld on February 21st from 1:00 to 2:00 PM. I’ll be there in the form of an avatar (with gray hair and gray-green eyes–and the resemblance ends there), answering advance questions and questions that crop up at the time. If you participate, I’ll meet you through your avatar, but we probably won’t recognize each other in the actual universe. My hesitations about the event are that it may be too young for many of you, and (the more serious hesitation) that you have to join Woozworld to participate. Please discuss this with your parents before you plunge in. For the adults who read the blog–for me, if I were a follower–the attraction would be to see this method publishers are using to promote books to kids in the tween (middle-grade) age group. If you decide to attend, go to www.woozworld.com and look for the HarperCollins Bookz Lounge.
Second off: The blog recently achieved a milestone and crossed over the 500 follower mark after hovering at 497 for many months. I’m not sure what benefits there are for being a follower (please say if you know), but I love to see the numbers tick up.
And on another subject, my last post was written while on vacation in Hawaii. If you want to share in the beauty we enjoyed, click over to my husband’s photographic website on the right. Alas, the photos won’t waft in the delicious warm air…
Now for today’s topic. On September 18, 2014, Deborah O’Carroll wrote, In the latest book that I finished writing, there was a very tense and awful scene for the climax, and I piled on as much hurt as I could handle doing to the characters, but I held back a bit. Even that was awful and I almost couldn’t. But I found that a couple months later, when I was editing, that since I had read the scene over several times, I was used to it. So I was able to add in some more problems to draw out the peril and seriousness of the situation even more. In that case, if I had tried to do it all at once, I wouldn’t have been able to handle it (even if my characters could!).
One thing I’ve been worrying about lately is high stakes and peril and stuff. I have a hard time making it so that we’re actually WORRIED about my characters. I think mostly I let them off too easy, and that’s something I’m struggling with…
Deborah partially answered her own question at the beginning of her comment. If we let time go by before revising, we can see everything more clearly. Our characters aren’t quite as precious to us as they were during the writing, so we can torment them some more.
What can we do, though, to make the misery tolerable while we’re writing?
• If we’re not writing tragedy and our MC is going to be okay in the end, and probably even better than she was at the beginning because her trials have made her grow, we can remind ourselves of that as we devise torture for her. We can even write an ending scene in which she’s fine. This may not be what we actually write when we get there, but it may make us feel better, and we can read it whenever we need courage.
• We can write comforting lines to ourselves right in our manuscript, like, Remember, Gail, she’s going to survive. Then we can cut these editorial remarks when we revise, and be careful to remove all of them before submitting our story to a publisher.
• We can entertain ourselves by writing on the side a monologue for our villain, in which he rejoices in every terrible thing that happens to our MC. He can even help us come up with more disasters for her. He can say, The only thing that would be better would be if… And we can put in whatever he suggests. If we don’t have a human villain, we can write in the voice of someone who doesn’t like our MC. If necessary, we can imagine such a character. The comfort in this comes from the humor.
• Going the other way, we can deliberately think about how much we love our MC and how much we admire her. We can think about what a privilege it is to watch her figure things out and overcome obstacles–and then we can turn the screws on her extra hard. We remind ourselves that we don’t want her to have an easy time winning her victories, because then we won’t admire her so much. Plus, we want to tailor the obstacles so she struggles, because if success is easy, what’s to admire?
• Of course we can remember that we’ll have a good story only if we make the going rough. When we spare ourselves by sparing her, we don’t wind up with much to interest our readers.
Back to my penultimate point, reader worry will intensify if the problems we’ve made for our MC push her buttons. In my novel, Ever, one of the MCs, Olus, the god of the winds, can’t tolerate being cooped up. Naturally, I confine him, and I make it a test. If he can’t cope, he loses his love.
In The Lord of the Rings, many characters, some of them beloved, like Bilbo and Frodo and even Sam, have to face their desire for power. In my opinion, it’s the central problem of the books. Some face down the temptation, but others succumb. In Anne of Green Gables, to take another example, Anne has to contend with her impulsiveness, her temper, and her unwillingness to forgive, and L. M. Montgomery keeps challenging her. One more instance: the sad core of Peter Pan is brave Peter’s cowardice about growing up.
A fun thing to do to is to think of a challenge for our MC, one we can’t figure out how to beat. Maybe we put her in a chest at the bottom of the ocean a la Houdini or we present her with a riddle that the greatest genius in world history has been unable to solve, and the consequences of failure are severe. Or we tempt her with a desire she knows is wrong.
Having said all this, I have to confess my fundamental wimpiness. I may write children’s books because there are limits to my making trouble. I create suffering for my MCs, but I doubt I’ll ever write a complete tragedy. I can’t tolerate reading tragedies or seeing them on stage or screen. To my discredit, I’ve stopped reading two beloved novelists for adults, Larry McMurtry and Mary Gordon, because their books make me too sad. I refuse to see or read King Lear (after the first time) for the same reason.
Here are three prompts of misery and suffering:
• Your MC, kind and generous as he is, cannot resist pointing people’s mistakes out to them. Put him in a situation where the consequence of speaking out will be dire, and have him do it anyway. Write the scene and delay getting him out of trouble for at least five pages.
• Last week the journalist Bob Simon died tragically in a car crash. The next day I heard a rebroadcast of a radio interview with him. One of the topics discussed was his forty day imprisonment in Iraq. He said that a hardship he and his companions endured was the constant cold. I confess that my mind wandered at that moment, because I can barely tolerate being cold for five minutes. If I were made to be cold all the time, I don’t know what I’d do. I might confess to anything in exchange for a warm room, a blanket, and a cup of hot chocolate. Give your MC a condition that she cannot abide and then inflict it on her. Write the scene and decide what she does.
• Oh! I can barely write this prompt! If you can’t stand to do it, I’ll understand. Your MC’s parents take in their evil niece when her parents vanish mysteriously. Your MC loves animals and the niece loves to torture them and gets double pleasure out of causing her cousin misery. The family has at least one beloved pet. Write a scene or the entire story from the niece’s POV, and delay the MC’s eventual triumph for at least five pages.
Have fun, and save what you write!
Kenzi Anne says:
This post is so well-timed; I'm currently struggling with making one of my more sensitive characters suffer–I just hate it! I LOVE the idea of writing the ending where they are alright; it makes it easier for me to hurt my poor character!! Also, thanks for answering my question in your last post, Gail!! I looooved it!!
I do have a quick sibling question. The sensitive character I mentioned above has a twin sister, who dies very early on in the story. The character has to go live with his older brother, who he's not very close to. I want them to become close over the story, but I don't know how to really write the sibling dynamic. I don't have any older siblings, so it's hard for me to imagine how my character reacts to his older brother and how to bring them together in the end. Any thoughts?
Bibliophile says:
Older siblings are SUPER annoying. They are also very commanding and often condescending. Of course, your MC won't react to this well, so that is all sorts of fun! Also, they do still love each other so keep that in mind. The older sibling will never knowingly go too far.
carpelibris says:
As the oldest of 3 girls, I'd like to add that it's also possible for the older sibling to be both bossy and protective. My youngest sister is almost 40, yet both of them can still trigger my "Nobody hurts my little sister!" response. (And believe me, I was bossy! 🙂 )
Michelle Dyck says:
I'm an oldest, and I imagine that what I might see as leadership, my siblings would perceive as bossiness at times. XD What's annoying for an oldest sibling is when a younger one acts superior or points out your mistake. (And then I have to remember that I've so often done the same to them!) But it's humbling to have someone younger correct you, and sometimes my response is prickly rather than accepting. Just an idea for how your character's older brother might react to certain things. 🙂
All that being said, carpelibris is totally right about the eldest's protectiveness and "momma bear instinct!" We feel responsible for our siblings and want to keep them safe.
Researching birth order could give you lots of insight into different sibling dynamics and personalities, by the way. 🙂
Melissa says:
I'm a youngest of five, one of which was Very hard to get along with. I would suggest putting the two characters through something they both find difficult and begin relying on each other as a result. Don't forget to put in a few more fights after that though because one instance doesn't magically make them get along forever.
Elisa says:
Yup, I am an "Oldest", so I can confirm: DO NOT TOUCH ONE OF MY SIBLINGS OR I WILL RIP YOUR FINGERS OFF ONE BY ONE AND FORCE FEED THEM TO YOU AFTER DEEP FRYING THEM!!!! That was, perhaps, a little graphic, but it just about sums up the feelings of an eldest sibling. I totally agree with Carpelibris and Michelle Dyck. Also, it is deeply humbling when a younger sibling corrects you. But at first you're annoyed and get snappish and all that, but the more you think about it, the more it burns. This has two effects: 1. It makes you remorseful and you try to patch up your ways, or 2. You get defensive and even more prickly. Lately I've been realizing that I'm not exactly the top-notch-est oldest sibling, so I'm trying to fix it. The simplest things will catch younger siblings attention. Pretty much all you have to do is get up with the intention of being nice to your siblings and: "Wow, Lissy, your being really nice!" or "I love you, you're the best big sister EVER!" or simply "I'm glad you're my sister."
My little brother is a little more than a year younger, but he is bigger than I am, and he is very protective of me. While I can easily say that he is the MOST ANNOYING THING ON THIS PLANET, he is also the person that I am closest to. We have TONS of inside jokes, we play slightly violent games (Like "I-hit-you-first-therefore-I-win," and "How-hard-can-I-hit-you-with-a-pillow-while-you-are-reading-before-you-explode"), we laugh at fellow shoppers while in Wal-Mart and tease each other mercilessly (he's starting to grow a mustache, much to my wicked glee, and it proves to be a very fun subject). We are getting to that age where we can go places without adult supervision, so long as we go together, so we go places together, and look out for one another. We usually have each other in the corners of our vision, just so that nothing happens to the one that the other is not aware of. And while he is younger, he still tells me things like "If anyone did so-and-so to you, I would wipe them out!" Once I had a dream where someone kissed me, and then my younger brother totally beat him to shreds. I told my bro about the dream and he's like "I would TOTALLY do that. Don't worry sis, I'll look out for you." Because he's bigger than me, whenever I call myself his "Big sister" he goes "You're NOT my big sister. I may be your kid brother, but you're NOT my BIG sister!" It's funny. Just some thoughts I guess.
Elisa says:
Oops, LONG!
Kenzi Anne says:
Thanks so much, everybody!! You all helped A TON!! I realized I was making the older brother too perfect, which made it very hard to create any real arguments between the characters. He's much more flawed now, and I'm having a lot of fun pitting them against each other 🙂 Thanks!!!!
Deborah O'Carroll says:
Thanks so much for this post and addressing my question! 🙂 (Here I am, innocently blog reading, and about have a heart attack seeing my name in a blogpost. I'm sorry… I just feel famous. XD)
These are great tips and I plan on trying some of them! I particularly like what you said about pushing the characters' buttons — taking their worst fears and turning those into obstacles. That's something I want to do more of.
I'm the same way — I don't like tragedy or being sad and don't read a LOT of books because I know they'll make me too sad. I mostly read (and write) books for younger people as well! 🙂 It's safer. ^_^
It's ironic one of the prompts is about cold — because precisely the situation I mentioned in my question had to do with a character who was stuck in another dimension/world for a long time where one of the main attributes was that it was always cold there… I agree, it's horrifying… o.o
Thanks again! I now have some great food for thought! 🙂
carpelibris says:
I just realized that I won't be home on the 21st. 🙁
I had to write a scene once that I didn't think I could get through (my MC was being whipped.) Finally I turned on the song "What Is This Feeling?" from Wicked (it has lines like "There's a strange exhilaration/In such total detestation. It's so pure, so strong!"), cranked it up REALLY loud, and sobbed my way through it.
Of course, now I flinch whenever I hear that song…
And yes, funny about the cold. I have a MC whose species can't stand the cold. Everyone in their underworld (if they're bad) is eternally frozen, like statues in a cemetery. Guess where my MC has to end up? ;>
carpelibris says:
Oh, those pictures are gorgeous!
Priscilla King says:
I'd have a hard time with the third prompt. Even small, put-upon younger kids can do things that animal abusers deserve to have done to them, but that are too gruesome to be described on Blogspot.
Chrissa says:
What a great topic! Like all of you, I struggle with creating stressful situations for my MC. But once I do create a scary situation or difficult obstacle, I have a hard time coming up with a realistic way for them to get out of it. This is most true for physical obstacles, ie., falling into a crevasse. I find that often I have to go back into my story and write a scene that shows an ability of my MC's which can be used in a different way to help get them to safety. Sometimes I can come up with an obstacle rather quickly, but then it make take me weeks to figure out a way for them to overcome it.
Jenalyn Barton says:
I used to struggle with this when I was younger. I remember in seventh grade my best friend and I decided to take turns writing a story together. We got a blank notebook, and I would write three paragraphs, then hand it to my best friend, who would write another three paragraphs. Imagine my dismay when I had been trying to get our MC to safety, only to find that she now had been attacked by a tiger and had broken ribs! But this experience helped me realize that good writing has trouble. Without trouble, the story was boring and dull.
To tell you the truth, I no longer have a problem figuratively beating up my characters. I've always had a strange fascination with kidnapping stories that I later realized stemmed from a deep fear of being physically and emotionally abused (Don't ask me why; I grew up in a very loving family and have never been abused in me life). I read kidnapping stories and such to help me deal with this fear. I didn't realize this until one day when I picked up a kidnapping story and started reading it, only to discover that the kidnapping victim died not even 20 pages into the story. I was shocked and scared and confused, and couldn't continue the story. I realized that all the kidnapping stories I liked had at least semi-happy endings. I was using the stories as a way to convince myself that even victims of abuse and such can come out all right in the end.
I use that still-present (though much milder) fear in my stories. No matter how much it hurts, no matter how horrible it seems, I know that my characters will come out all right in the end. They start out as diamonds in the rough, which means they have to be put through grinding and tumbling and fire to come out as polished stones. Hope that helps. 🙂
gailcarsonlevine says:
That lapidary metaphor is great!
Jenalyn Barton says:
Thanks. (^_^)
Lydia S. says:
The advantage of being a follower is just that they don't have to come to the blog directly to know whether there's a new post or not. Instead they can use something like the reading list on the Blogger dashboard reading list or email to keep track of all of the blogs that they follow. It's easier for people to subscribe/follow if you have the right little blogger "gadgets" handy on the side of the posts, like I have on my rarely updated randomness blog. http://homemadeuniversity.blogspot.com/
gailcarsonlevine says:
Thank you!
maybeawriter says:
Just my musings: For me, it totally depends on the story and the characters. For instance, I cringed just reading the final prompt, and even the seemingly mild first prompt made me uneasy.
I'm the kind of reader who sometimes, upon reading a scene where the MC gets in trouble, specifically trouble that they caused, will set the book down and pace for a moment, imagining a world where the scene takes a turn I like better. I replace a character's dangerous words with some less provocative ones, for instance. When I feel brave enough, I return to the book.
At the same time, however, I also enjoy planning out sad moments and even (temporary, of course,) death scenes for my current fan fiction. I even have an old, incomplete story where I spent about 5 1/2 pages purely torturing the MC, Megamind, and an original character. I saved them, but not until the very last possible moment, when they were both moments from death.
I think it stems from Megamind's character, and my affection for him. The thing that always fascinated me most was how vividly his eyes express his emotions, especially strong, unpleasant feelings like anger or sorrow.
So, I guess I kind of fantasize about situations where he'd be feeling those emotions, complete with highly expressive eyes.
It sounds pretty twisted, I know, but for this reason I kinda like putting him in painful situations.
I AM fairly squeamish by nature, though, so that horrible torture is still fairly PG. I can't stand tragedies or horror stories. I don't mind bittersweet, so long as it's still mostly happy, but I still prefer the good old fashioned happy ending.
Emma Jones says:
Dear Ms. Levine,
I always set up mysteries, but the actual solution is kind of anticlimactic, because I have no planning skills. Do you have any advice?
Also, going hand-in-hand with that, I find that I get too caught up in having my MC act normal in scenes, and go through day-to-day actions to add detail, but when it's time to look into investigating the solution to a problem or mystery, it always seems stiff, and forced. How can I help my transitions from acting normal to investigating be more "rounded", and all around satisfactory?
gailcarsonlevine says:
I'm not much of a planner, either. I make the problem complicated so that my solution, when I find it, will be interesting.
I agree with carpelibris: If you give your MC qualities that make investigating natural, like curiosity or intuition or a logical mind, then his or her actions may seem natural, rather than forced or stiff.
carpelibris says:
Maybe their "normal" behavior is to be curious about everything?
Emma Jones says:
Thank you! That really helps! 🙂
Tracey Dyck says:
First off, to avoid confusion, I'm the same person as the Michelle Dyck who's been commenting here–I just changed the name that shows up.
Second: Mrs. Levine, Writer to Writer just came in the mail today, and I'm super excited to read it! I've already started–it looks really good. 🙂 (And I'm curious to see if I recognize names of commenters… Erica Eliza being in the dedication made me smile, like, "Hey, I 'know' that person! How cool is that!")
Elisa says:
Hey, I have a(nother) name problem. I have this character who's name NEEDS changed for a very specific reasons, but I can't decide what to call her. Her name has to be a gemstone. (She's one of the sisters in my TTDP) I have a few options, but I can't decide, because I don't like any of them as well as her original name which MUST BE CHANGED AT ALL COSTS! For reasons I won't discuss. Here are some possibilities for her new name:
Iolite
Hyacinth
Chrysolite (This one would not be convenient, really, but it could maybe work)
Jacinth
Andradite
Melanite
Morion
Rosaline
Some of these are rather awful, but if anybody likes any of them would you let me know? I know I ask a lot about names, but names are important to me, because nothing makes me more satisfied than a character with a really good name (or, depending on the character, a really bad one). I like ironic or relevant meanings, or patterns, that's just my way I guess. So sorry for all the name questions.
Tracey Dyck says:
Can you share a bit of her personality? I like Jacinth, Melanite, and Rosaline…but it all depends what name suits her. And I suppose you've already used up more common gemstone names, like Topaz, Garnet or Sapphire, right?
Elisa says:
Not Topaz and Garnet, but I have used Saphira and Esmeralda, which are derived from commonly known gems. The other sisters are mostly named after less traditional gems such as Celestine or Tashmarine.
Kenzi Parsons says:
Personally, I really like Iolite. It just looks unique 🙂
gailcarsonlevine says:
Just a thought: You might invent a gemstone for your world, possibly very rare, with a quality that somehow matches this character.
Erica Eliza says:
I'm a fan of Jacinth and Rosaline.
Bug says:
Oh, hey, that's super cool! I had a TDP story with a princess named Rosaline, too. 🙂 (please don't take me saying that to mean "don't use that name in your story" because that's not what I mean at ALL. If you want to use that, that's completely fine. Okay. Just thought I'd clarify that. :D) I think a lot of those names are maybe a little weird, but maybe you could use a nickname, and that would make it better. Like in The Thirteenth Reality, by James Dashner, the main character is named Atticus, which is a sort of odd, slightly unattractive name for a twelve year old kid (or is he thirteen? it's been a while…), but he goes by Tick. Which is also kind of strange, but is a lot better for the character. And I'm sorry–I kind of feel like I'm rambling, but I hope that something was at least a little helpful. 🙂
Chrissa says:
If hard pressed to pick from this list, I'd vote with Kenzi for Iolite. But Gail's suggestion of making up a unique gem with a quality that matches your character gives you a lot of creative license.
Chrissa says:
BTW happily reading Writer to Writer, into The Plot Thickens 🙂 Learning lots and coming up with more questions …
gailcarsonlevine says:
I'm glad! Please post your questions.
Jordan W. says:
I’m currently working on a story that I have really enjoyed but there’s more plot to it then character. I’ve read dozens of books and articles that say the best story has a simple plot and complex characters. I consider my characters complex, but I have a complex plot that I have agonized over forever. I want the certain events in the story to happen but I feel like they aren’t happening because of character choices and actions, but rather outside influences.
I am also struggling to find a name that suits a tall dark and handsome prince . . . sounds a little lame when I say it that way but it’s the best way to get my point across.
Thank you.