How can i let bad things happen to characters i like?

Discussion in 'Character Development' started by AdurianJ, Mar 23, 2011.

  1. Mallory

    Mallory Contributor Contributor

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    This is a really good point - I get annoyed when characters are portrayed as victimey because everything happens TO them. There's nothing wrong with having this happen in a few situations, but they need to cause and solve their own problems, too.
     
  2. SeverinR

    SeverinR New Member

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    The story is why we make characters, even the ultimate ending of our characters makes them memorable. I have not killed a character off, but I did a near drowning of a teen and it was difficult, but I think it was a great emotional scene.



    I am doing a month long challenge on another forum.

    I am writing about a MC's history, when she was a child.
    The last challenge I do not think I could do to any of my characters.

    Write about your MC's last minutes of life.
    Even if not writing about a child(later growing up) I don't know that I could write a death of a MC just for a challenge. It would have to be part of the bigger story, not a simple short story.
     
  3. Elgaisma

    Elgaisma Contributor Contributor

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    Severin I think that is a good idea - I have written about the births and where relevant deaths of my MCs (not sure Soc and Nate ever die they have to reproduce first).

    Final Flight
    . It is a very, very early piece lol Wrote it last June but it is the death of my first MC.

    I was glad i wrote it because my second book is set one hundred and twenty years after my first and I was able to answer the what happened to Angus question.
     
  4. Ion

    Ion New Member

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    A good character flaw will allow you much more freedom in telling a good story. Plus, I find it easier to write a character that opposes itself. I can relate to that.
     
  5. Tesoro

    Tesoro Contributor Contributor

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    I have no problems endangering or letting my characters go through painful situations, even though loving them dearly. In fact in the end of the novel Im writing right now the MC gets shot by her boyfriend and only then, when she think she is going to die, she realizes she finally have a reason for wanting to live. It was quite a tough scene to write and I remember even shedding a tear because it felt as if it was happening to me... I can relate to her so much and there is a lot of me in this character.
     
  6. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    if you're a good fiction writer, you don't 'let' them happen, you make them happen! ;-)
     
  7. Bay K.

    Bay K. New Member

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    Have you ever experienced, seen, or heard about bad things happening to people? (I think we all have). Well then, there you go.

    Take natural, realistic mishaps that you know about and apply them to your characters.
    As much as we want a perfect life, it never happens.

    Think realistically, and then carefully put your characters through the tragic scenarios --don't hold back.

    Good luck.




    ----------------------------------------------------------
    Be good, wise and strong --or don't be at all
     
  8. Trilby

    Trilby Contributor Contributor

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    I agree with Mammamaia.

    Very few people (if any) sail through life without something bad happening to them. We all at some point in our lives will lose loved ones (mother, father, husband, wife, sibling, best-friend) the alternative to this is to die young - which still isn't good.

    Who hasn't had a broken love affair?

    Some people, through no fault of their own, are bullied, made redundant, cope daily with physical pain, live with the secret pain of unrequited love etc. it is all part of living. There is an old saying 'Everyone has their cross to bear'

    Be realistic. If as readers we can engage with and grow attached to a character and then something terrible or unjust happens to that character we should be able to connect with their emotions, feel their pain.

    If a character sails through the story and everything in their life is wonderful then it will be a very boring story imo.

    e.g.
    Julie, on leaving uni. goes for an interview for a high paid job. She is given the job. The first day there she meets the man of her dreams (the multi-millionaire owner of the company) he instantly falls madly in love with her and after a whirlwind romance in which her feet never get chance to touch the ground they marry, live in a 34 bedrooms mansion, have two point four children and live happy ever after. Where's the story in that?

    If you can't put your fiction character through hard times then in real life don't have children for if you can't cope with fictional emotion then you probably will never be a be able to cope with your child's real life emotional ups and downs. Their first day at school. Problems with the school bully, a teacher's upset them, the have the measles, chicken-pox, mumps and when they reach their teens 'tragedy, their world is coming to an end!' they have a spot.
     
  9. AdurianJ

    AdurianJ New Member

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    There is a story in that when you write a dark comedy about her friend who has no such luck despite being much more hard working ;)
     
  10. SeverinR

    SeverinR New Member

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    I can kill a character off, but just not as a exercise.
    The drowning scene took alot of thought on how to do it.
    I think if I did for the challenge, it would probably end up with the endless monolog (monologue? they both are listed) in the arms of someone they loved.
    The cliche ending.
     
  11. Elgaisma

    Elgaisma Contributor Contributor

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    I still don't remember why I originally wrote Final Flight. Not even sure where the ideas came from. It was the first short story I had written in a very long time. Sadly it also enlightened as to the death of the character I started out with in my head that I have yet to write about.

    Angus' birth was enlightening because his mother was poisoned shortly after by his sister. Until I wrote it I had no idea about that I had figured she had died giving birth. I also found out about her abusing Socrates.

    Writing about Socrates' birth told me about who he really was and gave me a whole new story.
     
  12. Daisy215

    Daisy215 New Member

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    Some great advice I got was that you should never love your character so much that you aren't willing to throw difficulties in the way. Without things blocking your characters path there is no story.

    I'm a bit of the opposite, I think I might make my characters suffer a little to much. :D
     

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