When Disaster is a Good Thing
Stories are about things that go wrong. A story that follows a character whose life is easy-peasy-lemon-squeazy is boring. We might want real life to be trouble-free, but that isn’t what we want to find when we open the pages to a book, or when we sit down to watch a film.
In this blog post, I talk about how disaster is a key ingredient to a great plot, and I offer up some tips to help you make sure you’re keeping your plot moving for full audience entertainment.
Let’s hop to it!
Make Your Characters Suffer
I have this sign in my study. It reminds me that if I want my story to be interesting, then I need to make things worse for my characters. And then worsen things, still.
A basic understanding of how a story unfolds goes something like this:
1.| A problem happens to someone
2.| The problem gets fixed OR the problem doesn’t get fixed.
Okay, great. But that’s just the starting point and the end point. What about everything that happens in between? We’re writing 300+ page books and we need to do a little bit more than introduce a problem and maybe fix the problem.
This is where making your characters suffer comes into play. Big-time. In fact, this is pretty much the driving force of your entire book. Yes, yes, there are other things that factor in, but even those ‘other things’ play a sizeable role in making your characters suffer.
WHAT KIND OF STORY ARE YOU WRITING?
Knowing what kind of story you’re writing will help you determine the kinds of problems to dish out to your characters. For example, if you’re writing a family drama, more than likely, aliens invading Sunday dinner at the Smiths isn’t a reasonable obstacle. However, a family drama would pair nicely with kids struggling in school, marital problems, work-life imbalance, or financial scares.
Once you’re clear on your genre and the tone of your book, you’ll be able to narrow down the kinds of bad things that will happen throughout the story.
WHAT CAN GO WRONG FOR YOUR CHARACTERS?
Your protagonist starts the story in a certain state of being—usually there is some kind of dissatisfaction or unfulfillment already in play. Your protagonist wants something at the start of the story, and it can be elusive (such as hoping for a job promotion) or it can be a basic, straightforward desire (such as getting groceries for dinner). Whatever that desire is, your job as the author is to mess with it.
Ask yourself what can go wrong here? How can I make it difficult or impossible for my character to get this thing they want?
For example, maybe your protagonist, let’s call her Lisa, wants to stop at the grocery store on the way home from work, and pick up a rotisserie chicken for dinner. Her husband has been working long hours, she hardly sees him anymore, but she can’t be bothered to make a dinner from scratch, especially if he won’t be home until midnight. She’s waiting in line, just wants to get home and have a glass of wine, when there’s a shooting in the store. She’s shot…
Yeah, that’s pretty dramatic. Maybe not quite right for the kind of story you’re going for. What if, instead, while she’s getting the groceries, she runs into her old flame? And he looks…amazing.
Hmm, a good problem for a family drama, amiright?
From there, you can escalate the tension by your character’s response and what they do next.
HOW CHARACTER EMOTIONS CAN MAKE THINGS WORSE
“Character is plot.” Pretty sure F. Scott Fitzgerald said this, but not sure if he’s the original brain behind it. Either way, it’s spot on. A character’s reaction can either solve a problem or create a new problem, depending on what kind of person that character is, what is at stake for them in the moment, and what lessons they still need to learn in their overall growth. That reaction spurs a new action. Cause and effect. That’s plot.
A character who doesn’t react at all is a dead character. So if you’ve got a character who isn’t reacting to a situation, better check their pulse.
In all seriousness, test your scenes. Ask yourself what kind of reaction is logical for your character in any given situation. They may be spunky with revenge; violent with rage; enthusiastic with glee; paralyzed with fear; weighted down with sadness, or dealing with any other kind of emotion.
Because we want to make our characters suffer, your job as the author is to build a character whose emotions lead them into making unwise choices. At least for the majority of your book. If your character catches on too quickly about how to Fix the Story Problem, then you’ll run out of steam. Your character will do all the right things and tension will evaporate.
Think about this when we consider the above example of Lisa buying groceries and runs into her old flame who looks amazing—her emotional response should deepen this problem, right? If she simply smiles, exchanges brief niceties, and moves on, then PFFFfffT. There goes all the tension.
But if she exchanges numbers, agrees to coffee in the morning—well, we’re going to keep reading to see what happens next. Depending on what we know about Lisa and her life leading up to this scene, we may feel disappointed in Lisa or maybe we’ll be cheering her on “You go, Girl!” Ultimately, as readers, we’re hoping she’ll figure this out somehow. Maybe meeting up with her ex is just what she needs to fix her marriage. Or maybe not. These are the questions that pull readers in and make them wonder. You want your readers to hope, to wonder, to worry, to turn page after page.
LAYERING ON THE TROUBLE
Hit your character with not just one arrow of trouble, but multiple arrows of trouble, at different times, with different degrees of intensity, with different threats of consequences.
Using your entire cast of characters to add fuel to the fire is a great way to complicate relationships and intensify situations. When you can develop secondary problems and tertiary problems, you’ll build a complex plot that will have your readers anxious and entertained.
Additionally, how your characters cope with each problem deepens your plot as well as your character arcs.
One thing to keep in mind is to make sure these bonus struggles are related to the main plot, otherwise they’ll feel like they belong in a different story. Tie all the troubles together through setting, character relationships, backstory, character desires and fears, or even on a larger scope such as political or world-based concerns.
MAKING TROUBLE FOR THE WHOLE CAST
As multiple troubles affect your protagonist, so should multiple troubles affect all the characters. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have viewpoints for these other characters. What impacts them will ultimately impact your protagonist.
Make things go wrong for family members, colleagues, friends. Can you go even bigger? How can you impact the townspeople? Or people of an entire country? Obviously, how big you go depends on the kind of story you’re writing. Remember, aliens invading Sunday dinner at the Smiths may only be relevant if Mr. Smith, father of Jimmy and Johnny and husband of Lisa, is an inter-galactic spy.
And again, how these other characters respond emotionally matters. Those responses will lead to decisions that play a part in your story’s plot, which in turn, will either benefit your protagonist or hinder your protagonist.
Most writers love their characters, which makes it rather difficult to put them through the wringer. I often hear from other writers that they find themselves protecting their characters, specifically the protagonist, shielding them from Terrible Trouble.
I get it. After all, these characters are products of your imagination, raised upon the pages of a story you’re in charge of. Letting your characters get hurt feels sort of, well, irresponsible and mean.
Readers don’t care about your sense of duty. They only care about reading a really great book. And really great books feature protagonists who suffer. Who are flipped from the frying pan and into the fire. Who are dragged across broken glass. Chewed up and spit out.
Characters who go through hell so that they can grow and strengthen and overcome all those odds and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. All of that transformation and success at the end will mean nothing if they didn’t earn it.
So make ‘em suffer.