A Little Dose of Reality

This article spoke volumes to me. It was about not letting your fear of the unknown control the situation you put your characters in. Even though I have an ability to easily empathize with my characters, I don't particularly have a problem doing this. My main genre is angst, after all. Though I don't have a problem with what the article was trying to teach its readers to do, I could still relate to it nonetheless.

At one point, the article said: Characters – true, multifaceted characters – are people we care about. We created them, and we shaped them to the perfection of our mind’s eye. We love them. They are parts of our heart, our imagination and our soul. They are parts of us. The pain they’ll experience, be it physical, emotional or mental, is pain we’ll have to experience, too. We’ll feel it as if the wound was our own, and we’ll ache with the people on our pages. And while this is so true, what you, as a writer, need to remember is simply, without conflict, you don't have a story. Without conflict, Scrubs wouldn't be as interesting if JD and Elliot stayed together since the first season like Turk and Carla did and there wouldn't be that dynamic 'Will they, won't they?' tension. Even in Turk and Carla's case, though we all know they're meant for each other, the fact that they had issues the first year they were married shows that not even the most established couple on that show is perfect. And there you have it. Giving your characters conflict shows that they're only human, just like you and me. Turk and Carla's marriage wouldn't be as realistic if they were all happy and "I love you more!" "No, I love you more!" all the time. Sure, someone could argue that we watch TV to escape reality, but without a little reality, you wouldn't be able to relate to the characters.

So the next time you find yourself shying away from giving your characters a little trouble cause you don't want to hurt them (and yourself), my advice to you is don't do it! Break up that established relationship! Put that guy into a coma! Like the article said: Realize that by hurting your own characters, you are not a sadist. You are not deliberately hurting your loved ones merely to watch them suffer. You’re giving a gift. You’re helping them grow and develop. It's the same way in real life. What doesn't kill you does make you stronger, after all. Isn't the happy ending better in the end, once they've learned something from the experience, than the beginning? You can get them back together or fix whatever situation you've put your characters in in the end (we readers would be disappointed if you didn't!), but like they say, the journey is more important than the destination. And in the meantime, watching how your characters react to whatever situation you've put them in plus the anticipation of when and how the situation will get resolved makes for some great entertainment.