A rule of writing

[bwinter]

Put your characters in situations that rip them apart. And rip them apart some more.

- Sherry Thomas, On fundamental rules of writing

I think this is something that I've internalised over the past year or so. The downside is, I have a lot of traumatised characters.

(On the other hand, I think this is why I adore movies like Equilibrium and Once

Comments

[assimbya]

Yes, I agree so much. It hurts and I at least always feel guilty about it, but it's what writing is, at least many kinds of it.

[bwinter]

I've been doing a lot of that lately, actually. My dear Draculea is currently quite broken by the simplest of means - a shapely pair of legs and a class of power that he can't hope to reach. I'd never thought I'd see him head over heels in love :>

[assimbya]

Draculea, in love? I can't wait to see this. Who, may I ask, is the person who has been so graced with his attentions? Unless it is Johannes?

[bwinter]

Lady Gent in my icon - Death in Elisabeth as played by Maki Ichiro in the 1996 Takarazuka Snow Troupe production. No-one's more surprised than me. I thought it'd just be a PWP to get it out of my head, plus a few glimpses of prior meetings to establish the attraction. Now I have a nine-part series chronicling Vlad's emotional journey through his ongoing love affair with Death. Which... explains a lot about him, really.

(Not to mention small neat things, like the fact Death has 10 angelic helpers, who only operate as an ensemble in the musical, but have developed distinct personalities and varying degrees of crushes on Vlad. It's been consuming my brain for the past few weeks, but fyrie says it's readable.)

[arabwel]

*looks at the characters she is putting through everything but the kitchen sink* Yup, I would sayy I agree with that rule.

[bwinter]

And that's what angst is for ;)

[arabwel]

Ohyes. Sometimes it is kind of bad cause, well, I have the one huge-ass story that tends to rip ME apart because I identify with the self-inserts xharcaters so much..... funnily enough, another a lot more dire 'äverse hurts a lot less because I ahve more distance from the characters, I suppose.

[bwinter]

I've learned the hard way to distance myself from my characters. Now I'm just enjoying the ride as they gnash their teeth :>

[etrangere]

Great quote! Quite describes all the writing I love most.

[bwinter]

It just jumped out at me as the basic principle of getting people interested in characters :> Conflict's where it's at.

I don't think that........

[dracschick]

you should write something just to challenge yourself (seems like writer is telling other writers to write angsty and that, if they do, they'll meet the challenge). For me, writing a very disturbing sequence isn't the most difficult thing that challenges me as a writer and makes me work on being a better writer. Personally, for me, it's humor. I'm trying to work on that:)

Re: I don't think that........

[bwinter]

I think it's more of a question of putting characters in situations where they are challenged - might as well be putting an angsty character in a situation that makes him laugh :) Right now I have a bloodthirsty warlord in mushy luuuuv, and it's tearing him apart nicely...

[oninobara]

I do so love that idea. Strip your characters down to the backbone. Then you know what they're made of.