Rant on putting your characters through absolute hell

[limyaael]

Well, this one was the winner by the most votes I’ve ever seen in a poll, so up it goes.

Comments

[frenchpony]

To Numbers Six and Seven, I have but one thing to say: "Do it to Julia!"

[limyaael]

...Okay, I might feel stupid after this, but: Who?

[frenchpony]

George Orwell, 1984, written in 1949. If you haven't read it, hie thyself to the nearest library. It's the best dystopian futuristic fantasy ever -- so much so that when 1984 rolled around, newspapers printed articles crowing that all the horrors that Orwell had predicted hadn't come to pass. It's where the phrase "Big Brother is watching you" comes from.

Anyway, "Do it to Julia" comes from the climactic scene of the book. The antihero, Winston Smith, has committed thoughtcrime in his totalitarian society by falling in love with Julia. They've been captured by the Party, taken to the Ministry of Love, and subjected to re-education, which consists of both physical and psychological torture.

"Under the spreading chestnut tree
I sold you and you sold me. . . "

[cygna_hime]

"...There lie they, and here lie we,
Under the spreading chestnut tree."

Very much so. I didn't get what you meant at first, but that's one of the best things about the book, and the saddest. The protagonist's love doesn't save him, and he ends up betraying his lover. Now there's something more fantasy writers need to try: a story in which OMGtruluv!!11! doesn't survive.

[beccastareyes]

Okay, I am bookmarking this, because it gives me many plot bunnies. I ought to start writing some of these down...

[limyaael]

Probably. The amazing thing about plot bunnies is how they breed, then vanish when the author really wants them to come back.

[limyaael]

The desire not to share character suffering is the main reason they aren't used more often, I think. Instead, the author relies on physical pain, which may be easier to imagine but is harder to actually share. I wouldn't mind that, except for the condition I mentioned at the beginning of the rant (it usually vanishes when convenient, or when a healer shows up). Wounds that cause problems for the rest of the character's life are rare, and wounds they can heal from are often the only price for a confrontation. The cost comes to seem less.

[onyxflame]

There's a reason some people are afraid to love. It often hurts far worse than hate.

[autophanous]

Love your advice - I'm a writer, though not of fantasy, so I added you for convenience's sake. :)

[limyaael]

Thanks, and welcome. I know very little about mainstream or most other genres beyond fantasy, so it's great to see the rants apply across borders.

[fanfare]

Number seven, I've done before in one of my novels. And as I seem to attach myself to my characters, doing that to my hero was incredibly painful. He killed his close friend, a girl he considered a sister and a faithful ally, because she begged him to do it. And even though he didn't want to, she pleaded until he did, and he suffered with the aftermath of being called a murder and the guilt to killing her.

I am a big fan of putting characters through trials or suffering, but geez, it's hard to if you really like the character v_v Reminds me of J.K Rowling's cut of Sirius - she didn't want to, she cried, but it "had to be done". Why? We don't know why. But it'll make sense eventually. Or so we hope.

[limyaael]

It is hard. But if the story needs it and it makes it better, then it should be done.

[onyxflame]

Heh, Z is my absolute most favorite character I've ever written. I hope I never have to kill him off, but that won't stop me from making him suffer if I can manage to do it in a humor book. In fact, he'll be suffering quite a bit already.

I guess we can always learn from RP here. There'll always be another character, someone you might like even more. (Which of course means someday you're gonna hurt even worse when you have to screw them over. Maybe writers are just masochists in disguise. :P)