We really ARE cruel to them, aren't we?

Hapax Legomenon · Sep 1, 2007

Okay, I'm thinking of writing some meta. That means I need a consensus from you guys.

I know there needs to be significant conflict in a story for it to be interesting, but do you actually like making your characters suffer? I need to find the basic rationale and reasoning for what writers do to their characters.

Any other advice for writing metafiction would help. thanks. ^_^

Devil Ledbetter · Sep 1, 2007

I believe in pushing my characters to their limits. That usually involves suffering of the emotional variety.

cletus · Sep 1, 2007

The more they suffer, the sweeter the payoff at the end.

DocBrown · Sep 1, 2007

I do when it is appropriate. Especially if I want a character to turn bitter!

preyer · Sep 1, 2007

i don't think i start off with a character thinking about how mean i can be to them. i'd venture to say that the vast majority of my characters suffer from the fates they themselves willing involved themselves in and that they get what they deserve after the point where a sane person would have turned back. *i* don't get my characters in trouble, they do that themselves. then they lose a toe. not my fault.

nevada · Sep 1, 2007

From what I understand of Metafiction, it involves comments by the author and acknowledgement that it is fiction. I dont see where overt cruelty to charactes comes into it. Oh, unless you as author plan to tell the reader why you are beating the character with a large, dead fish.

But honestly, a character is not real. So what do I care what I do to them. It's all to serve the story. To be true to the character's position in the plot and to further the plot. And if that involves some cruelty, c'est la vie.

PeeDee · Sep 1, 2007

Preyer's got it right, more or less. I never wish harm on my characters (well, a few...). Their decisions and their actions cause the bad things, as well as the good. Are some of them my fault? I guess. But only in the sense that, before the story begins, I know what decisions they've made and how those have affected them.

*goes to look up the term metafiction, then ambles off shaking head*

Claudia Gray · Sep 1, 2007

I don't enjoy hurting the characters, though I can simultaneously cringe for them and be pleased b/c I know it's what the story needs.

maestrowork · Sep 1, 2007

I don't set out to be mean to my characters, but I do think about what makes the story better -- more exciting, more dramatic, more suspenseful, etc. So if that means my characters have to suffer some misfortunes, so be it. They're very strong, resourceful characters -- they will survive. In fact, they beg for the hardship, so they can show how tough they are.

glassquill · Sep 1, 2007

If the story calls for the characters to suffer, then I'll do what I must to tell the story. I won't say that it's pleasant, but I wouldn't hesitate to do it if that is necessary.

ZannaPerry · Sep 1, 2007

I like inflicting cruelty on my characters because it brings them more to life to me, and very real.

Kentuk · Sep 1, 2007

As a reader I hate reading pages and pages of misery and suffering. I confess to reading most fiction to escape and am sometimes put off by literary efforts that endevour to put my nose in shit and keep it there. That said, conflict and suffering are necessary to character and plot.

JoNightshade · Sep 1, 2007

As Kentuck said, I don't necessarily have my characters in a deep depression for the entire book; there are hopeful points, etc.

But essentially, when I start off with a character, I'm asking myself, "What is the worst thing that could possibly happen to this character?" And then I do it.

TheKnightWhoSaidNi · Sep 1, 2007

One of my characters was a soldier. That's torturous enough. He was a respected Captain. He was then framed by a former fellow soldier for the murder of his wife and children, and sentenced to die in a brutal competition (he wasn't killed outright, probably due to the king's good graces). He got beat around for three years, but he lived to see his release. Shunned by society, he then rejoined the army in relative secrecy as a mere infantry, wracked with bitterness and a desire for revenge and nothing else. Throughout the novels he goes through a major transformation, largely due to his encounter with my MC, Angelo, who by the way is a kid thrown into a completely unfamiliar world full of hostile forces.

So, yeah. A few of my characters suffer quite a bit. It can be painful every now and then. That makes their triumphs exponentially more satisfying to write, though, doesn't it?

Toothpaste · Sep 1, 2007

nevada said:
But honestly, a character is not real. So what do I care what I do to them. It's all to serve the story. To be true to the character's position in the plot and to further the plot. And if that involves some cruelty, c'est la vie.

Yes, yes and another yes. In the end, the character is simply not real. I suppose we can get attached to characters, but I just don't think you can be mean to them. The character serves the story. The story you are making up.

Hapax Legomenon · Sep 1, 2007

Toothpaste said:
Yes, yes and another yes. In the end, the character is simply not real. I suppose we can get attached to characters, but I just don't think you can be mean to them. The character serves the story. The story you are making up.

That's true. I was just wondering if you got joy out of hurting them, like how people get joy out of shooting up enemies in first person shooter games. Although, I think hurting characters is a more complex joy.

maestrowork · Sep 1, 2007

Toothpaste said:
In the end, the character is simply not real.

Say it isn't so!!!!!! Somewhere, someone is dying because I make him so in my book. I just know it! I have so much guilt now I think I'm just going to go shoot someone.

kristie911 · Sep 1, 2007

I usually do cruel things to my characters off-stage, or before I start the novel, preferring to have the story follow their growth with only flashbacks of the cruel things they've lived through. However, it's not always an easy road and the occasional tragedy occurs along the way. But I like to see my characters grow, not get the shit kicked out of them all along the way.

But I've had a few that just deserved it.

Danger Jane · Sep 1, 2007

Emotional suffering is good stuff as long as it doesn't turn into a whole lot of

ANGSTING

But that doesn't mean I can't feel bad about it. loool.

ChimeraCreative · Sep 1, 2007

I have some ongoing epic novels and comic books with constant characters. To keep it interesting and advance their growth I have to think of awful, torturous things to do to them all the time. The lives my characters live are not easy ones but they'll have adventures for years on end. I don't feel bad about, I'm proud that I have characters that can weather pretty much any situation I toss at them. ^_^

My shorties are usually short and funny to make up for the hell my 'long haul' characters have to go through. Maybe I should give the 'long haul' crews a break and put them in some funny shorties. ^_^

-An

Ageless Stranger · Sep 1, 2007

Oh yes, I'm a nutter just not a fully fledge nutter but I'm still young so you never know.

In a few years I might start chasing my characters round with a chainsaw merrily ripping them into pieces. Of course! A story written from the POV of a chainsaw! Inspired!

Akuma · Sep 1, 2007

During a particularly stressful scene, one of my characters actually screams at the sky. He might've been yellin' at God but I think he was yellin' at me.

ZannaPerry · Sep 1, 2007

Again, it depends on what type of story you want to write. And what do most readers like to read by the way? Go from there.

ChimeraCreative · Sep 1, 2007

Akuma said:
During a particularly stressful scene, one of my characters actually screams at the sky. He might've been yellin' at God but I think he was yellin' at me.

I have just lmmfao. ^_^

-An

Xx|e|ph|e|me|r|al|xX · Sep 1, 2007

Xx| I voted "to an extent" because I love my babes, so of course want to see the best come 'round for them, but I love writing complex emotional things. I'm with Preyer, too--I don't deliberately make them suffer, things happen and after it all, the characters come to me to tell the story, basically. I don't feel like I'm putting them through anything, I'm writing what already happened, and I don't think I can change that. :3 |xX

We really ARE cruel to them, aren't we?

Do you enjoy being cruel to your characters

No!

No, but I do what I have to do.

To an extent.

I love to pile on the suffering!

Come on you stranger, you legend,

I'm a king bee

Hopes to one day write for food.

excessively spartan

Where's my tea, please...?

Fear the Death Ray

RB's favourite chewtoy

^ Just Me & a Sharpie

I want to write what I want to write

has finally arrived

The taller one in the avatar

THE RECKLESS RESCUE is out now!

Fear the Death Ray

Happy to be here

Been there, Done that.

Dave Brubeck kicks your ass.

Rare Writer Pokemon

^ Just Me & a Sharpie

Been there, Done that.

Bored Fanatic