Being mean/cruel to characters

By captain kate · Sep 18, 2012 · 755 · 4
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  1. Sometimes in a character's life or development, things need to happen that are mean and/or cruel to allow them to experience a real life. We all have suffered through mean and cruel things in our lives, which have developed us into the people we are, and the same for them. I know it sounds weird, but Kate tells me her entire life as I write her story, and it's interesting to listen to. The amount of mean things that have happened to her is simply amazing, but the character is so vivid from that.

    Stephen King likes to say "Kill your darlings, kill your darlings even when it breaks your egocentric writers heart." He meant for cutting and editing your novels, but I tend to use that philosophy in a different light. To me, and it's just an opinion and we all know what they say about that, I take it as poetic license to throw rough, and mean items into a character's life.

    I have one scene, near the beginning of a pursuit time, when Kate slips and rolls down a muddy bank and lands face down in the nasty mud at the bottom. Full of vegetation and animal carcasses, and foul smelling, the scene just pushes her into another corner to climb out of. Throw in a brand new 300 credit (dollars) outfit, which got ruined, and you can see how things worked.

    Don't be afraid to think of, or discover a major twist, or painful event, for their lives, but keep it to yourself while writing it. Once it's all said and done, and everything's on paper, then you can or can't tell if you choose. I tend to keep to the Stephen Moffatt school of writing.

    As the lead writer and executive producer of Dr Who, he's admitted that he lies when it comes to things he's writing about in story arcs and episodes. Jenna Louise Coleman's surprise appearance on the first episode comes to mind. Which also is fun to see how he slips out of the supposedly "painted corner."

    So don't be afraid of hurting a character. And I only have one rule myself, and it may not work for everyone but here it is:

    1. I always lie.

    No straight answers on twists and turns coming down the road to anyone, or I'll send them down the rabbit hole. And do it all cheerfully all the way.

    For anyone who's a Dr. Who fan, keep this in mind too:

    1. Moffatt always lies.
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  1. DanesDarkLand
    I am a Dr Who fan. I also agree that some really horrible things can and will happen in a person's life. Friends, loved ones, family, all can and will be taken away from us at some time in our lives, so its not a bad thing to show that happening to our characters. That's how I write, but at the same time, you have to give them something to strive for. If nothing but bad keeps happening to the MC, they might decide to say "Chuck it!" and throw in the towel, or go on a tear that will burn the world down around them.

    I am just glad that many of our main characters don't really burn the world down around them as many as they are written can do that. What would have happened to Aragorn in Lord of the Rings if he decided to conclude a peace treaty with the Dark Lord just to save his lady love? There are many such examples, and if they don't remain true to who they are, we've written over our character and given up on them.

    And that I will never do!
    DanesDarkLand, Sep 18, 2012
  2. Cogito
    I believe it was Stephen Moffat who said that. It was a lie.
    Cogito, Sep 18, 2012
  3. captain kate

    And he's backed up his quote with his writing, and how no one truly knows fully what he's got planned until it hits the screen. He's sneaky with his plotting and knows how to hide his twists. I learned that from him, and, in fact, have got a pretty good idea how he's going to get out of the "corner" people think he's in.

    The man leaves little clues (not foreshadowing, which is different) spread throughout each episode, even if he didn't write it. I'll give you little tidbits here or there to tease the reader while keeping the main twist hidden until the right moment, when they're lulled into thinking things are how they are.

    There's an over arcing antagonist, who's hinted about by a couple scenes in the first novel and something at the end of the second novel. They haven't, yet, been entered into the picture-mainly b/c I'm still hashing the idea out, but it's almost complete.

    I'll still sit here and send someone, when it comes to my twists and nothing more, down the rabbit trail. It keeps the reader guessing.
    captain kate, Sep 20, 2012
  4. captain kate
    Oh I definitely agree with giving them something to strive for. In Kate's case she's trying to survive and be able to stop and assassination from occurring. So, it's all part of the big scheme, but each novel explores her character more and more. Phoenix Rising is more about a young 19yo of girl, having gone through hell and back in life, and having her mind placed into a cybernetic body because she died, and how it changes her life.

    The second is about WHO is Katherine Almir. Is she a decent person who knows how to kill, or is she tired of killing, or is she a stone cold killer due to her time spent as a gladiator slave? Those are questions she has to answer and she learns it during a dark and winding journey.

    So, they do have to have something to strive for, but without struggle, you're character would hate your guts for not giving them ones to overcome.
    captain kate, Sep 20, 2012
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