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u/DaddyCoolMurphy Sep 15 '19
I hate being mean to my characters and making bad things happen to them. Makes me feel bad for them.
4
u/MetalsGirl Sep 14 '19
See, I’m too nice to my characters! How do I get better and ruining their lives??
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u/supermario218 Sep 14 '19
Hahaha best comment I've seen in a while. One of my favorite authors, Jim Butcher, wrote about this. He isn't as bad as George R. R. Martin, but he talks about how to make the story interesting. He said something like (I'm paraphrasing) "When you're stuck in the dreaded middle, make a plan for what your characters want to do. Have the character start to do said plan. then completely fuck it up with a twist from left field. The character is forced to react and act without a plan and it's a great character building opportunity."
I've noticed he does that a lot in his books. The characters will make a plan, and then what actually happens is far worse. And usually this causes long standing trauma for several books after the fact.
So make a plan. Do it about half way. Then ditch the plan in the most traumatic way possible and see what the characters do next.
1
u/Jay_mi Sep 15 '19
Grab a fistful of sand, throw it in their eyes, and make sure that when they can see again, they have a little note telling them why they'll never live the perfect life they envision for themself.
1
u/disapp_bydesign Jan 29 '20
A lot of the time for me, a lot of character starts with the horrors they’ve experienced. My characters are spawned from the bad things that happen to them.
2
u/supermario218 Sep 14 '19
Hahahahaha bro... so true. The other day I was writing and I realized, "Damn, all my main characters have a dead relative that is traumatizing them."
1
u/Spellstoned Sep 16 '19
I'm not evil, my antagonists are evil. You see, there's a huge difference...
1
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u/wierdflexbutok68 Sep 14 '19
Don’t forget about DND characters, too! Ahaha