Ruin Your Character's Day (Please)

I have a bit of a reputation when it comes to my writing. In our partnership, I am most definitely “the mean one.” The one who, if we decided to kill a character off, was most definitely my idea. Not only that, but I’m also the one who has the soul-crushing story ideas or backgrounds which is why I was told to write about it this week. 

You see, when your characters have it too easy, the reader is bored. They have nothing to latch onto and it’s completely unrealistic for a person to not experience hardships or have experienced them in their lives.

As readers, we want to latch onto the feelings we experience through the characters. We may not (sadly) get to experience magical quests or great adventures but we do relate to the feelings of wanting to be loved, wanting something more, the hurt of betrayal, etc. In a way, we as readers are trying to either place ourselves into the story or fill a need we have through the story, so we have to use our storytelling to convey these feelings to be able to connect with our readers and give them something to latch onto. 

How do we create these feelings? We give them things to care about and we use that to cause tension, in a way we are presenting a carrot and then tossing it just out of reach. For something like The Hunger Games, Katniss wants to not be picked for the games, wants to provide for her family and survive. All good things. Then, her sister is picked for the games, creating a very obvious conflict. Then once she’s traded places with her sister, the goal becomes about survival and overcomming all the various means that the story tries to thwart that plan of staying alive. But it doesn’t always have to be so dramatic. Frozen also does a great job of this by presenting Anna with what she wants most (love) in the form of Hans who uses that desire she has to gain her trust and eventually try to kill both sisters. Honestly, for a Disney movie that line of, “if only there was someone who loved you.” Was pretty cold and excellent storytelling. He threw her desire back in her face when he revealed his true colors in a way that we could all feel that crushing betrayal. 

Our words should have purpose and each nuanced trait is a potential option to explore. Does your character prefer a certain color? Why? And how can someone use that to further the plot and potentially cause conflict? 

Like I mentioned earlier, it doesn’t have to be life or death conflict, but it should be important to the character and create a feeling relatable to us. Essentially, make their day awful but have a good reason for it. Your readers will thank you. 

That’s all for this week. As always stay tuned for writerly updates from Kris Kam Publishing L.P. (We’re so fancy and official now) and we’ll see you next time.