BY JESSICA SHEN
Making Your Hero Suffer
On Editor’s Notes, we’ve talked about all kinds of things that will make your story better, from how and when to break grammatical rules , to choosing a good name for your character. Today, let’s turn to the dark side of storytelling: how to make your hero suffer.
Some of you may relish in the idea of being the evil puppet-master, while others may dread the idea of causing harm to your precious character. If you’re as devious as I know some of you are, great—you’ll need no encouragement. For the reluctant ones, think of yourself as the archetypal hard-ass dad—the one who (lovingly) breaks their kids down to “build character.” You know who I’m talking about.
So, why would you want to do this? Why do you want to make life harder for your hero? You’ve already got a good plot in hand, you know how he or she is going to navigate through those twists and turns.
Let’s pause for a moment and talk about bodybuilding. One of the central tenets of bodybuilding (and strength training in general) is to work to failure. By the end of your workout session, you want the muscle group you’ve been working to be exhausted. While you’re huffing and panting lifting those weights, what you’re doing is creating tiny tears within your muscle fibers. As they repair, the muscle fibers grow bigger, much like scar tissue. Your muscles will never grow any bigger if you don’t tear them down, first.
Now, let’s put two and two together. Your hero, like your muscles, will never come out stronger if you don’t break him down, first. Think about what is your character’s strongest trait. Maybe she’s a math whiz, or a track star, or the best jiu jitsu fighter in the county. Maybe he’s super level-headed and logical, or has exceptional powers of observation. How can you take these traits away from your character? What makes your character strong, and what can you do to make him weak? How can you take your characters to the very edge of their sanity? How can you break them down? Answering these types of questions is what will get your readers invested in your story. If nothing of consequence happens, if your hero can skate through the story without ever getting to the breaking point, what’s the point?
To that end, don’t be afraid to be dramatic. Don’t be afraid to put it all out there. Of course, your entire story can’t be a 10 on the intensity scale, but when it comes to the climax—don’t hold back. This should be the point in the story where it’s do-or-die for your hero. She’s sad? Make her devastated. He’s weakened? He should be at death’s door. She can’t run anymore? It’s probably because she’s worn her feet down to the bone and now she’s leaving bloody trails in her wake. You know what I mean. The worst thing that will happen is that your editor will tell you to tone it down—but honestly, if you do it right, the chance of that will be pretty slim.
So, whether you want to play evil puppet-master or the reluctant character-building dad, make your hero suffer. Treat him like Arnold Schwarzenegger would treat his body during a training session. Because at the end of the day, after being broken and beaten down and left for dead, when your hero is able to come back from that precipice, your story, like Arnie’s famously bulgy muscles, will be all the stronger for it.
Jessica Shen knows of what she speaks and has a legion of tormented souls to show for it. Kingdom City: Resurrection by Ben Ireland, was released in February 2014. Her latest project, Vanguard Legacy: Reflected by Joanne Kershaw, was released in March 2014.
Jessica’s next project, On The Isle of Sound and Wonder, a Steampunk fantasy by Alyson Grauer, is slated for release in November 2014. Jessica lives, works, and tortures from her home in northern California.