Pain, Writing, and the Author
By Vailyon; used with permission
Pain is a part
of writing. And no, not yours
necessarily. I’m talking about your characters. That one you threw in a prison
cave for a week to get lost, half starved, and mauled by a wolf. The other that
you tortured to near death in the villain’s lair. The one you killed. And not
just physical pain. Those who were left behind after that one died. The one you
made her entire town turn against her. The one who made the wrong decision and
shattered a relationship. Pain is a part of writing.
However.
However. Sometimes
pain is dangerous. Yes, you heard
me. And yes, I know I participate in the weekly critique group that we have
termed “Painweavers.” And yes again, I have done every single one of the things
listed in the above paragraph, as well as forcing a character away from her
fiancé and everything she’s known and piling a curse on her in the first
chapter, breaking wrists, giving multiple near death experiences, and having
even worse things planned. And yet I say the above statement again. There are
times when pain can be dangerous.
Now that
I’ve got your attention, I can explain myself. Every story has pain. It’s part of what
makes a good story. Tolkien sends
Frodo and Sam on a grueling quest across Mordor to destroy the ring. Lewis
slays Aslan on the Stone Table. Andrew Peterson sends the Wingfeather family
across a continent, separating them, breaking their resolve. We as humans in a
fallen world relate to pain. We’ve lived through family dying, friends
forsaking us, our own internal brokenness. When a character struggles, we relate to them. So then, let’s make our characters suffer
atrocities so our readers relate to them and love them even more, right?
Wrong. As writers, we must carefully walk the tightrope
of pain. No pain? No way to relate to the characters, and what kind of story
would you have without pain? All the pain? This is where we can stray into the
“danger” category of pain. Pain becomes dangerous
when it becomes pointless. To explain, I’ll step back and ask a bigger
question. Why do people read stories? Don’t think about why you write, but why people read.
Some people read to escape, some to learn, but mainly people read to find hope. They want to see
that despite all odds, good does win at the end. Even when things
are horrible, somehow, good prevails. Think about it. Despite the orcs, the
lack of water, even Sauron himself, Sam and Frodo still succeed in destroying
the ring. Yes, Aslan was slain, but he came back to life and destroyed the
witch who killed him. The Wingfeathers
finally find a place of rest and a home. The pain, the dangers, the
hopelessness, it all makes the happy ending shine all the brighter.
If we as
writers forget this, we stray into dangerous ground. Have you ever said, “Oh my
readers are going to hate this,” then laughed maniacally? What about, “Poor
[insert character’s name],” while smiling on the inside? I have. And while
these thoughts are not in and of themselves bad, they might point to a deeper
problem. We may have forgotten the reason behind the pain, and just began to
insert pain into our characters’ lives just because it’s pain. Or just to make
our readers love them more and hate us. Perhaps it would do us some good to
step back and ask a simple question.
Why? That simple
question can help balance us on this tightrope of pain. Why am I doing this to my character? Why did I
just give my character a laceration from her knee to her ankle? She was stupid
and refused help. Why do I have
her rejected and nearly lynched by a town? To show the broken racism of her world and make the
faithful companions that much better. Why
separate her from her fiancé in the first place? To show what love truly looks like. This question can help calibrate our internal
pain meters. If you ever come across
pain that is there just for the sake of hurting your character, remove it. In
fact, I might go so far as to say that if you find pain in your story that does not help further
your story’s greater theme and plotline, eradicate it. Remove the scene.
Finally, the
thought that spurred this massively long musing on pain. We as writers should
never, let me repeat, never, glory in pain. Yes,
be happy that you wrote a painful scene well. But never let the pain be the reason you write.
And no, I’m not just talking to the sadist. This can spring up even
in us “normal” writers. I’ve had to try my best to squash the tendency,
especially in my current novel. I have to be careful and ask myself, “Why?” And
just to make
her life miserable is not a sufficient answer. It shouldn’t be for you either.
…
Mainly people read to find hope…if you find
pain in your story that does not help further your story’s greater theme and
plotline, eradicate it…never let the pain be the reason you write.
…
Like Vailyon's post? Let him know in the comments!
Comments
Post a Comment