Your characters are at your mercy.
I’m reminded of a very popular series of early silent films, “The Perils of Pauline,” released in 1914. Most of the twenty episodes end with a cliffhanger and our tragic heroine, Pearl White, in great danger. I viewed a few clips during my film history class in college and marveled at images of the nascent “damsel in distress” movies.
A filmsite.org review of the melodrama mentions that, “Pearl White…the daring, athletic and active female star performed some of the riskiest, hair-raising stunts in these films, i.e. stranded on the side of a cliff, in a runaway balloon, in a burning house, etc. She fought pirates, Indians, gypsies, rats, sharks, rolling boulders, and her dastardly guardian.” Noteworthy is that Pauline was never tied to a railroad track struggling to get free as a train chugs closer and closer, although that’s an image “tied” to the series over the years.
Every story needs tension and, yes, the characters going through a physical, emotional or psychological gauntlet. And sometimes all at once! I refer to what writer Kurt Vonnegut said on the subject. “Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.” I’m not sure what Pearl White was made of, as the film character, but the real one injured her spine during the filming of “The Perils of Pauline,” that caused her pain for the rest of her rather brief life.
My short stories, screenplays and, more recently, novels have primary characters that remain in survival mode for most of their lives on the page. Although I can’t relate to all of their experiences (thanks be to God) my goal is to know the character in such depth that I understand how trauma and mishaps shape their actions and reactions. If some of the characters do things that turn us against them, I want the reader or viewer to have a modicum of empathy if not full understanding.
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Here’s a good spot for the next bit of advice from Kurt Vonnegut: “Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.” I think he gets his point across.
In the first chapter of my second novel, “The Years In Between” we learn that our protagonist, Lori, lost her parents in a deadly tornado. It’s her first day back at school and she discovers that her best friend also died in the violent storm when she turned back to revisit Lori’s Christmas room, a decorated bomb shelter. Her Grandma Lottie reveals the news of Joy’s death on her first day back to school. We meet Lori in an emotional coma. We know she’s damaged by loss, so sudden and fierce, but we also want to know how she reacts to the people around her. How will this event shape her actions throughout a lifetime and the pages of a novel?
Yes, your characters are at your mercy. They need their own set of obstacles, large and small, to define them. There’s no such thing as an ordinary person. Whether made up or real, everyone has some unique, extraordinary story to tell.
Be tough on your characters! Show us who they are! Think of Job, in the Old Testament. He’d never have known he’d remain a faithful servant of the Lord even when he lost everything UNTIL he lost everything. What would your characters do in the worst of circumstances? When the occasion arises, let them jump off the page or the screen even if their reaction is to do NOTHING. That says volumes about a character. Ask Hamlet. Happy writing!