Frustrated with a character

Lucky Penny · Nov 22, 2006

I have a 'favorite' character who must do this thing...this awful, despicable thing and it's driving me insane. I've written most of the scene, but can't seem to make myself finish it because I don't want him to do it....but he HAS to do it!!! Has anyone else ever had trouble writing a scene you knew needed to BE, but you didn't like? I guess I need to learn to distance myself? *groans & pulls out hair* How do I do that?!!! :rant:

sorry...never mind me...not enough sleep and too many stray thoughts bouncing around in my head...just needed to vent. :roll:

TrickyFiction · Nov 22, 2006

What if the thing was just as hard for the character to do as it is for you to write? Then, you could include your frustration into his or her dilema. Of course that might not work; I have no idea what this character is like.

I had to have one of my favorite characters kill my other favorite, and it took me FOREVER to write it. I hated it. Then, one day, it just worked. I don't know how, even. Maybe I soaked up some of the wickedness of the killer.

Vescoiya · Nov 23, 2006

Well, is it in the range of things this character would do? If so, and if they have to do it for plot reason, I find skipping over the particular scene and leaving it to stew for awhile can help get some perspective of the issue.

Sort of sketch an outline of the scene and then go back once you and the character are reconciled to the fact that this has to happen.

Good luck with it.

Bartholomew · Nov 23, 2006

If the character won't do it, someone else has to.

zornhau · Nov 23, 2006

Lucky Penny said:
I have a 'favorite' character who must do this thing...this awful, despicable thing and it's driving me insane. I've written most of the scene, but can't seem to make myself finish it because I don't want him to do it....but he HAS to do it!!! Has anyone else ever had trouble writing a scene you knew needed to BE, but you didn't like? I guess I need to learn to distance myself? *groans & pulls out hair* How do I do that?!!!

sorry...never mind me...not enough sleep and too many stray thoughts bouncing around in my head...just needed to vent.

Fix the character so they'll do it, drop another character in their place, or change your plot!

Azure Skye · Nov 23, 2006

Then let him do it. Maybe you need to get it out of your system to find peace with it.

How do you do it? Just close your eyes and write.

Scarlett_156 · Nov 23, 2006

Have another character come and intervene or interfere at the last moment...?

Most of my favorite characters do despicable things from time to time. That's what makes them live, ya know. No one is 100% good or 100% bad.

lmcguire · Nov 23, 2006

Good advice all. I can relate to what TrickyFiction wrote - let the character recognize that it's not a good thing and struggle over it - that's sort of something my MC does. He's a spy, and as he says "we are not gentlemen."

As for how I write scenes wherein he does distasteful things... I just do, because he does and I can't stop him. If I could stop him, he never would have become a spy in the first place and I wouldn't be writing his story.

FWIW,

Liz

Elodie-Caroline · Nov 23, 2006

In my first wip... I started off the story in my head where the main female character got killed off near the end; but I fell in love with her and so changed the ending slightly so that she could live.

Ellie

Ol' Fashioned Girl · Nov 23, 2006

I've done the same as Ellie... and I've also tried to make a character do something she wouldn't do. I wrote the scene and for days the MC griped at me... until I finally changed it to what she wanted. Sometimes the characters know better than we do.

Carmy · Nov 23, 2006

It's hard to force a character to do something he doesn't want to.

Maybe it's just me, but my characters become 'real' after I've spent a few hours with them. I feel what they feel, their joys and sorrows. I could no more force a 'nice' character to do something vile than I could force a friend to commit murder.

If you force the character into doing something uncharacteristic, how will that change him and the rest of the novel?

Elodie-Caroline · Nov 23, 2006

Ol' girl and Carmy... Yes, the characters seem to take on a life of their own and are like real people in our heads, let's just hope that our readers will think the same one day eh. Only last week I wanted my girl to say something to someone in my wip, but I wanted her to say it how I would -- rather untactfully I'm afraid; but she wouldn't do it. I mentioned in another thread on here how my MC was a stubborn Cow lol. I find that my characters have traits that I have never possessd; so I find I have to write my stories soley for them instead of for myself.

Ellie

Birol · Nov 23, 2006

Penny never said the character didn't want to do the deed. She said she didn't want to write it, to allow it to happen.

Penny, it's already happened. It's done. You're just telling about it now; you're merely reporting events for the reader. Grit your teeth and move forward. The reader has to know about this act in order to understand what comes after it.

Andre_Laurent · Nov 23, 2006

I had to kill off one of my favorite vampires, lol. There was no getting around it, he had to buy the farm. It took me two weeks to write the scene and I still cringe when I read it while doing edits, lol. Pretty sad but true.

Lucky Penny · Nov 24, 2006

Wow...thank you all for your responses & support!!! I really was just venting...so frustrated.

Birol said:
Penny never said the character didn't want to do the deed. She said she didn't want to write it, to allow it to happen.

Penny, it's already happened. It's done. You're just telling about it now; you're merely reporting events for the reader. Grit your teeth and move forward. The reader has to know about this act in order to understand what comes after it.

This is IT exactly!! I never said HE didn't want to do it...in that moment, he did wanted to do it more than anything. There's a cold, vicious streak in him that I've been hinting at and this scene is just the 'reveal.'

TrickyFiction said:
What if the thing was just as hard for the character to do as it is for you to write? Then, you could include your frustration into his or her dilema. Of course that might not work; I have no idea what this character is like.

That's precisely what I've done...it works well with his character. Although I adore him, he is not the 'gentleman' others would like him to be. This particular scene is very important to furthering the development of his character. His actions and beliefs are strongly influenced by his actions in this scene.

Thanks again, for all of your comments!

Can't Catch A Break · Nov 25, 2006

Carmy said:
It's hard to force a character to do something he doesn't want to.

Maybe it's just me, but my characters become 'real' after I've spent a few hours with them. I feel what they feel, their joys and sorrows. I could no more force a 'nice' character to do something vile than I could force a friend to commit murder.

If you force the character into doing something uncharacteristic, how will that change him and the rest of the novel?

My characters become real to me. I start to identify with them.

However, if a character is oging to do something drastic, have an exit strategy. So many write for shock value, but that event should be butressed by a reason why the character committed the action.

sfecphory · Nov 25, 2006

Maybe you don't need to write the scene showing the character doing the awful thing. Pull a Hitchcock: show the character on the way to the awful deed, then show the character after the horrible deed. His/Her preparation and then response may be more important than actually showing the knife going in.

jpserra · Nov 25, 2006

Lucky Penny said:
I have a 'favorite' character who must do this thing...this awful, despicable thing and it's driving me insane. I've written most of the scene, but can't seem to make myself finish it because I don't want him to do it....but he HAS to do it!!! Has anyone else ever had trouble writing a scene you knew needed to BE, but you didn't like? I guess I need to learn to distance myself? *groans & pulls out hair* How do I do that?!!!

sorry...never mind me...not enough sleep and too many stray thoughts bouncing around in my head...just needed to vent.

Just write a scene and complete it. Put it aside. You don't have to keep it, but once done, it is simply one of many options at your disposal. Yes, I've been there. My main character, the bastion of virtue, the gold standard for morality once murdered three men because of who they were. Is it out of character? I don't know. Perhaps. It is horrible, but once I wrote it down, I got it out of my system. I could move on.

John Serra

heatheringemar · Nov 27, 2006

A similar thing happened to me, only it wasn't a favorite character. In the novel I'm currently working on, my villian is really, really evil. And he does some really bad things.

It was very hard to write those scenes, but they needed to be there to show just how bad he really was so he wouldn't fall into the "bogeyman" category.

And I got sick to my stomach every time.

It's kind of like killing off a favorite--it's nasty, but if it's gotta be done.... :Shrug:

Miss Java · Nov 27, 2006

Azura Skye said:
Then let him do it. Maybe you need to get it out of your system to find peace with it.

How do you do it? Just close your eyes and write.

and hopefully you won't get your fingers on the wrong spots on the keyboard amd emd i[ wotj sp,etjomg ;ole tjos/

NeuroFizz · Nov 27, 2006

I'm all for getting into the characters we write, but if a logical step in the story brings that character to a cross-roads, you the writer should be able to push through it. If it paralyzes your writing, you are letting the tail wag the dog. No matter how "alive" the characters become, you are the writer, the only real person in the room, and your job it to write the story. That said, there are several tricks to accomplish what you need to do, and some of them have been mentioned. The simplest is to give your character a choice, one side of which is the thing you don't want him/her to do. Make it a lesser of two evils, a compromise, an act of frustration or desperation, but get in the character's head while making the decision. As an example, murder without any hint of the mindset of the murderer is a horrific event. Taking a life as a calculated decision, regardless of the basis for that decision, can be reasoned through by a reader, at least in the reader's understanding of that character.

Chasing the Horizon · Nov 27, 2006

I'm having a very similar problem with my WIP as well. Its the other way around, a very bad thing happens to one of my main characters, but I feel the same way. I get extremely wrapped up in my characters, and have yet to bring myself to even write a rough draft of the scene. I feel like I'm being evil for letting it happen, since I could stop the whole thing just by pressing the delete button.
But if nothing bad ever happens, then there isn't much of a story to tell.
I'm afraid that's not much help, but I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who struggles with these type of scenes.

Lucky Penny · Nov 27, 2006

Thank you ALL for your input!!

UPDATE:
I actually finished the scene the day after I started this thread, but it took longer than it should have because my backspace button has some sort of finger-magnet in it!! Does anyone here know how to get that removed? (lol)

At any rate, I put it aside for a couple of days, but it still gnawed at me until this evening, when I let a friend read it. She knew I was going to write it and kept asking about it. Letting her read it was even harder than WRITING it!! But once she had read it and expressed just how she felt about the scene, I was so relieved! It was like having a nasty little secret and needing to share it with someone.

thank you all again for your comments, insights, experiences and advice!! It really helped!

ChaosTitan · Nov 27, 2006

Lucky Penny said:
At any rate, I put it aside for a couple of days, but it still gnawed at me until this evening, when I let a friend read it. She knew I was going to write it and kept asking about it. Letting her read it was even harder than WRITING it!! But once she had read it and expressed just how she felt about the scene, I was so relieved! It was like having a nasty little secret and needing to share it with someone.

You know, I can relate to that. While writing Novel #2, I would send clumps of chapters to my beta for a quick read. Part of it was payment for standing behind me with a stick, poking me to continue (firguratively, of course). Part of it was to get some feedback on story direction, etc...

The night she read the scene in which one of my main characters died (at the hands of someone very unexpected), I sat on pins and needles waiting for her to finish. When I got the desired reaction, I felt so relieved. Killing the character off had been hard enough, but I was terrified the death would feel...wrong...to a reader. Thankfully, it didn't.

But I still get that same antsy feeling when I send along similar scenes. I both love it and hate it.

Lucky Penny · Nov 27, 2006

chaostitan said:
I sat on pins and needles waiting for her to finish. When I got the desired reaction, I felt so relieved. Killing the character off had been hard enough, but I was terrified the death would feel...wrong...to a reader. Thankfully, it didn't.

Oh, thank you! That's how I felt while I sat here at the computer, watching the IM window for her reaction! I was feeling silly for needing her reassurance.

I really appreciate you sharing that with me.

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