So, I was cleaning the stove top the other day, and scraped my finger on a sharp edge. I got a two millimeter cut as a result. Barely even bled. No bandaid required.
But it did sting in the shower that night. A tiny, minuscule cut, and it stung like a bugger.
This got me thinking.
I’ve just edited the passage in my WIP where my poor main character gets his leg savaged by a demon cannibal.
He’s properly wounded (lots of screaming and passing out), but after being patched up by a medicine man, he soon carries on, and a week later gets involved in a bloodthirsty battle.
Meanwhile, I’m still lamenting the scratch on my flipping finger!
It got me thinking about the god-awful things we do to our brave, stoic characters. In this WIP alone I put pretty much all my characters through the wringer. And that’s nothing compared to the emotional trauma I put my very favourite character through (in a fanfic piece I wrote a few years ago). The poor guy was totally emotionally destroyed by this bastard overlord God-author, all for the sake of entertainment.
Damn, we writers are cruel beasts.
So what about you? How brutal are you to your characters?
That’s the fun of being a God-Author. You get to put characters through things you never have to experience yourself. Unless you’re like me with my second book where the main character experiences some of the hells I went through.
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Well, I HOPE I never go through what my characters do!!
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I hope not either but at least my main character gets his revenge in a way I never did.
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When fiction trumps life 😁
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Oooo, a demon cannibal, I like it! I forced a character to kill off a family member in order to save others. Another time a mother realized her son was possessed by a demon, so I made her tie the child up at night so she could sleep.
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Your books sound interesting, I am going to have to read them.
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I’ll have to finish writing them first 😉
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Good… it’s not just me then!
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I don’t like to hurt my characters for the sake of it, but sometimes is necessary.
In the novel I’m currently working on, one of my characters had to get a tattoo to cover the scar I gave her in the previous book, courtesy of the dread shanhui, the green demon dog with a man’s face of Chinese tradition.
And I might have thrown to the dinosaurs a few of the characters in House of the Gods, but that was part of the fun.
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Hahaha! Thrown to the dinosaurs… love it.
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My characters mostly enjoy some good ol’ sexy time so….I’m pretty good to them really! x
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It’s good to be your characters 😁
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Yeah…they enjoy themselves immensely 😉
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🥰
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We can be brutal, but it has to suit the story. I had one of mine bitten in half by a bear, then partially eaten. (He got better.)
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Bahahaha! Nice. 🤗
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It depends on the genre whether the pain is physical, emotional, or both. I go for brutal! We have to make their lives hard or the reader won’t care.
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I KNOW you go for brutal. Poor Gannon 😓
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Ha ha. Yeah. But it’s fun.
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I put my characters through tons of emotional trauma and often physical trauma, but in my last release, END OF DAY, I crossed a line for one of my MC’s that had me biting my nails on release day. So far no one has slammed me for it, but I still have “author nerves.”
I think it also makes a difference if it’s a secondary character or an MC. I’m far more free with my secondary characters, but sometimes you just have to push the line with the MC.
Hope the cut heals, Jess!
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Oh don’t tease me like that!! *runs off to grab End Of Day to slam Mae for her brutality*
😁
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LOL! Now THAT made my day 😀
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Realised I had to grab Hode’s Hill first… am now learning all about The Fiend 😈
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Ooooh, and a DOUBLE YAY! I hope you enjoy 🙂
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I am so far!
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🙂
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I submitted a synopsis recently where I killed everyone. It was brutal and cruel… and ultimately rejected until I saved some people. I was told it was a little too dark and hopeless. Go figure.
I put my characters through hell. And probably more emotional torment than physical (which is saying something). But no one wants to read 300 pages of bliss, right?
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See, I love the sound of that synopsis! Right up my twisted alley 😉
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Mine, too! Although I have to admit, the revised version is probably a little better.
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lol! Can’t wait to read all about the bloodshed and carnage! 🙂
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I don’t think I’ve put ny characters through too much, at least not yet. I did have a random moment recently where my protagonist was in a fight, and I randonly realized I needed to break their arm.
It was a strange feeling, this calm, detached realization that was so different from the emotional maelstrom the character was experiencing.
What’s really funny is I’m co-writing and the other writer asked why I didn’t break her protagonist’s character’s arm, and I very matter of factly told them, “Nope. I’m leaving that for you to do, if you choose to.”
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😁
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If characters aren’t tested, how can they triumph?
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So true!
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