But now I do. And I can't tell you how much it has helped in drafting.
If I start to feel off about my story, now I stop to think about my choices. There's something wrong with my plans, and usually it's that I've taken the long route or made things too easy. Both make things boring. Both are likely fixed by making it worse for your characters, in one way or another.
Example: Just yesterday I was not feeling the chapter I was working on. There was something terribly off. Yes, I was following my plan, my outline, but I didn't like what I planned. I had this whole section where my MC was going to succeed at something and it would give her hope, but then she'd ultimately fail at it at a crucial moment. It would have taken at least 5k to write this. At a point in my MS where I need to be heading into the Big Moment.
After stewing and whining about it all day, I finally realized what I should do—have her fail up front. Basically, make the entire situation completely hopeless. No boost. Nah, let's remove what little she had left and then force her to make an impossible choice. Yes!
It so worked. It's totally evil, and way worse than what I'd planned. But I know I just saved myself a lot of cutting later on. This is the perfect setup I was looking for going into the climax. All I had to do was make it worse.
*evil mastermind cackle*
This is such a great post. I'm guilty of not allowing my characters to suffer. I hate to break their little hearts. But now I realize that they won't grow as characters if I don't. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteLOL I feel so evil when I say, "What can I do to mess things up for her?" But it totally works!
ReplyDeleteBringing them to the lowest low is what makes their getting to the highest high so satisfying. :)
I love to put my characters in tough spots, especially social ones. The more awkward, the better!
ReplyDeleteGood advice. I tend to not make things as hard as they should be for my characters. Not that I don't put them through torture of some sort it's just that I don't keep things consistently hard.
ReplyDeleteHehehehe I know what you mean. Almost pity my characters... ^_^
ReplyDeleteThat's just wanted I needed, my WIP was feeling quite stale... if the stakes aren't high enough for me to keep writing then the stakes won't be high enough for people to keep reading. Thanks for the reminder. :)
ReplyDelete"Do unto your characters the most deranged things possible"?
ReplyDeleteLove it! Inspiring! I'm too nice to everybody, bad characters included!
ReplyDeleteI keep forgetting how much I love tragedy. Thanks for the reminder!
I used to make this mistake big time. Thanks for the advice.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with this and it definitely made a light bulb go off in my head. I've been feeling uneasy about a scene in my WIP and this definitely made my mind start to work. Making it easy for your characters is easy, making it harder for your characters may be harder but it definitely keeps the tension moving. Great post! ;)
ReplyDeleteIsn't it so much fun being an evil mastermind from time to time, treating our characters like pawns?
ReplyDeleteWonderful post! My critique partners have told me before that my characters are too nice, too happy, and everything is too perfect in their world. Thanks for reminding me to cause some trouble!
ReplyDeleteErin @ Quitting My Day Job
Really, really good advice. This inspires me to take another look at an idea I abandoned because I was bored with it, and now I know why! Her life was too easy! I wanted someone else to fix her problems because I liked her! Aha!
ReplyDeleteBTW- I haven't said anything yet, and I keep meaning to. AWESOME red shoes in the pic. I want my own pair!
I think I'm still in that "green" stage where I coddle my characters. Sure some bad stuff happens to them, but I really need to learn to be even more "evil".
ReplyDeleteWow. I had been staring at my computer screen for the better part of an hour, trying to figure out why I was blocked and where to go next, when this post went up. And there was my answer: I had made things too easy. Now I have to go back, re-write some stuff, discard some other stuff, and combine some chapters, but it will be better in the end. I think. Anyway, thanks!
ReplyDeleteOh you are so mean. I have that problem NOW. I'm too nice to my book. Maybe that's why it bored me so much I had to put it away for awhile.
ReplyDeleteYou give such great advice. This was yet another gem. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteagree - it is important to push your characters to the egne of their ability to cope, throw worse and worse challenges at them, set them up face to face with their biggest fears, so the change their need to undergo ( the big moment, as you're saying, Natalie) is likely to happen. It's hard to do if you really like your characters, but on the other hand, if you write characters you don't like you may struggle to finish the book... just like me ;-)
ReplyDeleteYou just turned my WIP in a totally new direction. THANK YOU THANK YOU.
ReplyDeletexoxo because if I was talking to you in person, I *totally* would.