Mistreating Your Characters
Posted by David Duhr in 
Discussion questions: What is the worst thing you’ve ever done to one of your fictional characters? What’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen another writer do to one of his/her fictional characters? And why do you think conflict and obstacles are so important in fiction?
In our recent discussion on inserting yourself into a book, our pal David L. asked, “What was the worst thing you ever did to a hero/heroine?”
That question immediately grabbed me. I recall a workshop instructor once saying something to the effect of, “A short story or novel succeeds in direct proportion to the amount of horror you throw at your protagonist.”
Now, it’s obviously not that cut-and-dried. Which she knew. But the point was, good fiction involves conflict and obstacles.
Most fiction can be summarized this way: A character wants something–he or she has a goal. But something stands in the way. An obstacle, or many obstacles. (Obstacli?) And he or she must overcome those obstacli to achieve the goal.
And the more awful those obstacli are, the more affecting will be his or her success; i.e., the goal tastes better the more difficult it was to achieve. It often works out that way in real life, too, doesn’t it?
I don’t believe I’ve ever been particularly brutal to a protagonist.
The first thing that came to mind when David asked the question is a character I threw off the top of the building, and on the way down, his life flashes before his eyes. It isn’t so much a flash as it was a long, drawn-out exploration of all his mistakes.
It wasn’t a great story, nor a particularly inventive idea.
Another character wants to be a baseball player, but he loses his throwing hand in a car accident.
(For the record, both of these characters are based on the same person, a kid I grew up with.)
I once had a protagonist pour some of his dead father’s ashes into a full bottle of gin and drink it. That was gross. But he does it intentionally.
The protagonist of my novel also wants to be a baseball player and is also going to lose his hand.
Remember! There are no new stories, just new ways of telling old stories.
Now it’s your turn! What is the worst thing you’ve ever done to one of your fictional characters?
What’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen another writer do to one of his/her fictional characters?
And why do you think conflict and obstacles are so important in fiction?
Let us know below!
WriteByNight co-founder David Duhr is fiction editor at the Texas Observer and co-host of the Yak Babies podcast, and has written about books for the Dallas Morning News, Electric Literature, Publishing Perspectives, and others.
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In answer to your question, I offer this: “Allen Parker was your average middle-class computer scientist, carving out a life for him, his wife, and two children. Then one day he woke up in the body of Helen Ceavers, a nano-medicine specialist working at a research facility halfway across the galaxy, four hundred years in the future. Now he’s must come to terms with what’s happened, learn a whole new way to live, all while keeping the mind system from those that would stop at nothing to get it.” Here’s a link: https://www.amazon.com/Anothers-Place-Time-experience-Changeling-ebook/dp/B07JM1VFQS/ref=pd_ybh_a_7?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=5HFNBH31WN2HD1EX2ZZZ Yes, I know it’s a shameless plug,… Read more »
So what is Allen Parker’s goal, or mission? That thing he will stop at nothing to get or achieve?
Good question. Two things he will stop at nothing to achieve:
a) Keep the mind system out of the wrong hands, and
b) survive.
Running a distant third is avoiding the adventure and notoriety. But he’s the kind of person that deals with whatever life throws at him, good or bad. That, and his sense of right and wrong, keep him going. Yes, he’s reluctant, but he’s also an ‘all or nothing’ kind of person. He’s a great friend to have, just don’t ever back him into a corner.
I had a protag drink Satan’s blood to ensure she would become the first woman US president. That seems pretty bad but it’s probably not unusual. I had a torture scene in my currently-being-written novel, but I cut it for lack of relevancy. I turn to the classics for my award for “worst thing done to a fictional character.” In Shakespeare’s “Titus Andronicus,” Lavinia is raped, her tongue cut out, and her hands amputated. That whole play is about escalating revenge, but it’s not the Bard at his best. Conflict builds the tensions and sharpens the hooks of drama, as… Read more »
Do you have an example where the violence is gratuitous? That could be an interesting topic. Balance. Knowing how.
What happens to your character after she becomes prez? Or does the story climax with her drinking the blood?
The most obvious examples are in current TV series. Just about all of them contain gratuitous violence and sex. An outstanding example is the STARZ series, Spartacus, of a few years ago. It was full of sex and violence that did not pertain to the story and that was therefore, to me, just distracting (ironically, that series was supported with some really good writing). Literarily, it’s hard to be specific since I tend not read those kinds of works. I expect that anything by Robert Ludlum will contain gratuitous violence. I recall a scene from (I think) “The Gemini Contenders”… Read more »
I’ve wanted to read that Doerr book for a while now. You liked it?
Loved it. So did my wife and members of my writers group. It’s on my all-time favorites list. I did a Goodreads review at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2527899906
Oh, boy, thank you because now I have no choice but to spend this whole weekend writing like mad to make it up to the poor guy. First of all, let me say, drinking the ashes thing is pretty gruesome but also quite original… what happened to him after that? Anyhow, my story has four or five heroes, actually, but one of them is a K9 cop who lives life to the fullest and is a very powerful man–large, strong, handsome, head of the department, most highly decorated K9 team in the state, has a miracle of a dog as… Read more »
Good lord, that is quite a string of awfulness to throw at a character. Did all that stuff happen to the real-life cop, too, or did you embellish? Sounds like it could make a good movie. Who would you cast as the hero?
No, nothing like that happened to the real life cop. I like the movie question, I always like to play with that. Hard to think of any current actors who are the right age, but one that comes to mind is Brian Dennehy. Also, if you don’t think of him as Mad Eye Moody, Brendan Gleeson (Gleason?) could pull it off–he’s got the sheer force and size snd larger than life personality.
That could be a fun blog post: Who would you cast as your protagonist in the film adaptation of your book?
PS (tell me if I talk too much) speaking of Brendan Gleeson, he was in the movie Cavalry, which was one of the hardest I ever watched in terms of what happens to him, but the beauty of the movie was how it dealt with the idea of forgiveness. I call it a must-see, but it is rough
Sorry, I’m at work and got interrupted before I could correct that movie title to Calvary. He plays a priest. Far cry from the Mad Eye.
My novelette “Lazuli” (Asimov’s, Nov. 1984) centers around the sexual abuse of a child. That story alone (my first sale outside the small press) made me a finalist for the 1985 John W. Campbell Award, given to the best new science fiction writer of the year (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Campbell_Award_for_Best_New_Writer). I wrote it in three days over the course of about ten, needing recovery time for myself after each session. I’ve read George R.R. Martin’s five (so far) books in his series A Song of Ice and Fire. Anyone who’s watched Game of Thrones knows how brutal he is to his characters. But… Read more »
“needing recovery time for myself after each session.” That’s when you know you’re hitting it hard; when you need an emotional/physical break after a writing session. Is that the story that’s taken the most out of you? (That could be an interesting topic.)
It probably is, though some others have come close. I’ve written scenes that left me with sopping hankies. Another required me to meditate and center myself first before I dove in and put vision to draft.
Hi Elissa,
You remind me of something I read once–that the novelist Georges Simonet has a complete physical before each novel, then locks himself in a hotel room until it’s complete. Like running a marathon. I am in awe that you can do that in three days and with such an intense subject.
Georges Simenon, I meant to say. I’m dyslexic today.
Did you hear the one about the dyslexic drunk who walked into a bra?
Good one
The farther I get into this book, the more I’m not sure who the ‘main’ character is…. the protagonist hero is slowly broken down over months, at one point convinced his wife is dead, and finally being stolen away and turned to evil in the antagonist’s demon’s stronghold. meanwhile, his wife, who had been learning swordplay from him, likewise believes him dead, sees a friend die unexpectedly brutally in front of her, gets buried under the remains of a rock golem, almost dying from internal wounds. When she finally heals from that, she picks herself up, only to find herself… Read more »
Haha, yeah. That sounds brutal. Would it be a spoiler to tell us what happens on that battlefield?
I guess you’ll know when I do…I haven’t actually written that part yet….LOL
I guess I’m pretty good to my characters. The worst I’ve done is to have one living on t the street, starving and being accosted by a pimp. One had a real nasty back story where she was kept in a brothel, drugged and almost killed. That is in the Jillian Factor. The o the book isn’t titled yet. Considering most of my books are contemporary crime novels, there aren’t any demons or paranormal,so mats of my stuff is pretty tame.
Paranormal stuff can get dark for sure, but I wonder if there’s an argument to be made that the most intense brutality is the human-on-human kind.
I’m not a nice person. I may be nice to the living and I get along well with the dead, but if your a character in one of my stories or novels, run. My hero’s wife in “Intrusion,” Meadhbh, was murdered for her own good. The hero, Laurel, was raped in jail, possessed, and in the spirit realm, was blasted to smithereens. In “2084” my hero Zane while in a prison hospital, has his arm amputated in unnessacary surgery without anastetic or drugs and has everything taken from him. Later a person who he thinks is his friend, takes over… Read more »
Takes over his mind? To me that feels worse even than having an arm amputated needlessly and without anesthesia. Does Zane have a way to fight back?
I hope so. If they ever passed a law making it a felony to harm your characters, I’d be looking at…
The Writer’s Block section of the cell block? Or the PENitentiary? Sorry 4am is unpunny hour.
I just love that you’re on our blog at 4 a.m.
Now I’ll be up until 4:00 am worrying about being put in the pen for a long sentence.
You are really quick with the plays on words!
I work third shift in a hospital. Thanks for helping keep me awake.
Do you have time to write on third? When I was a rent a cop back in the 70s, I would read a lot, a book a week or so, and even take my chessboard along to practice. If I would have been writing at the time, I would have gotten a lot of work done.
I’m telling you, you two should form a late-night or early-morning group. Find another two or three writers and meet at a Denny’s or some such before or after Susan’s shift.
The latest I stay up now is 2:00. My wife still works. I make coffee in the morning. Perkins is better. Want to commute?
Somewhere I read you to make it difficult for your protagonist and then ask your (heartless self) how can you make it worse.
Maybe before Susan’s shift? If it’s something you both would really be interested in, I’d be glad to facilitate and/or put you in touch in private, rather than discuss your locations in public. You’ve both expressed interest in joining new groups, and I know you don’t live far from each other.
David D,
Why don’t you go ahead and give my email address to David L. It seems there are like at least three Davids on this forum, you aren’t really all the same person, are you?
Hi Susan, I’ve been bi-locational but never tri-locational.
davidlemke@outlook.com
I wish there was time to write. It’s actually the busiest shift. Once in a while I am asked to sit with a single patient who sleeps all night. Then I can do a little writing. Lately been happening more frequently but that’s not usual.
I don’t mistreat any character