Conflict and Tension, Part 2: Be mean to your characters

Conflict and Tension, Part 2: Be mean to your characters 

by Melanie Dickerson

As I spoke about in Conflict and Tension, Part 1, Conflict is one of the most important factors in any novel. We discussed in that first blog post how much and what kind of conflict and tension we need. Now I want to address some of the comments my post received, in which writers said they struggled with being “mean” to their characters, or not wanting to hurt them, as this is something I've struggled with too.

I recently came across my notes from a workshop Davis Bunn taught a few years ago. I don’t know if it was a paraphrase of something Davis Bunn said or a direct quote, but I had written, “Forget your attachment to your characters. Detach.”

We want our readers to feel an attachment to our characters, to feel what they’re feeling, and to empathize with them. But it can be a problem if we as the author are too attached to those characters. I had been taught this (or read it somewhere) early in my writing endeavors, but I’ve needed to be reminded of this recently! More on that later.

In my first published novel, The Healer’s Apprentice, I was plotting as I wrote. I reached a point where I thought, “If the heroine gets deathly ill, that could work well for the plot.” But I cringed inwardly. I didn’t want my heroine to get sick.

Wait, WHAT!? This was a no-no and I knew it! I couldn’t let compassion for my character cause me to pull back from a conflict that would make the story better. Basically, it came down to this: Did I want to write a great story? Or did I want an imaginary friend? Seriously. Think about it. Do I want and need to write a great story that keeps readers engaged and sells lots of books? Or do I need an imaginary friend who’s happy with me for protecting them from harm?

It sounds silly, but it’s true. If Rose, my heroine, had been a real person, then I would never want to make her get seriously sick. I’m not sadistic or into being cruel to people. But this was a story, and I could NOT let myself feel sorry for my character, or get too attached to her. I needed to detach from my character for the sake of the story.

And so I let her contract meningitis and get to the point of near-death. And that led to a lovely scene where the hero was able to show off his heroism by finding and saving the heroine, who was stranded in the woods. He was in great anguish over the heroine’s possible death, and it pushed him to declare his love for her as soon as she was recovering. That led the heroine to selflessly refuse his proposal of marriage, in order to save him from the consequences that would ensue if he gave up his rights as the oldest son of a duke to marry a peasant. That's a mouthful, but just know that it produced a great chain of events and lots of lovely angst. And angst is conflict, and conflict is good.

I came up against this problem in the last book I wrote, The Orphan’s Wish. I was too attached to my hero, though I wasn’t really aware of it at the time, and it made it so much more difficult to write the story. I knew bad things needed to happen, but it was hard, and I found myself smoothing things over for my hero. I let him get out of his difficulties rather too easily. But through rewrites and editing, I worked hard on fixing this problem, thanks to great editors and a great agent, who read the story and said the words you never want to hear: "This needs more work." 

But it just goes to show, you need to keep reminding yourself of good writing techniques and principles. Or I do, anyway.

Keeping your reader engaged is so important, and conflict and tension are key to this. You have to continually ask yourself, What is keeping my reader turning the pages? The answer is . . . a question. You have to plant questions in your reader’s mind and keep them in suspense. And the question could be, Will the heroine’s—and hero’s—secret identity be discovered by the bad guy? (The Noble Servant) Or, Will the hero realize he’s in love with the heroine before he marries the wealthy land-owning widow? (The Golden Braid) Or, Will the hero find out the heroine is not who she pretends to be? (The Silent Songbird) Or, Will the hero be able to rescue the heroine from the villain before the villain kills him? (The Captive Maiden)

The possibilities are endless, and one question won’t necessarily carry you through till the end of the story. You must be prepared to let one question be answered—let that conflict be resolved—if that is what works for the story. But if you do, you MUST HAVE A NEW CONFLICT to take its place, more tension, more reasons why the reader will want to keep turning pages.

And that will be our topic for my next post, Conflict and Tension, Part 3.

So, discussion time. Have you caught yourself holding back because you didn’t want to be “mean” to your characters? Are you being "mean enough" to your characters? Also, what questions are you forcing on your reader so that they will keep turning pages to get that question answered? I will give away a copy of my Little Mermaid retelling, The Silent Songbird, to one commenter.

And here's my Aladdin retelling, The Orphan's Wish, releasing June 26th.

Orphaned and alone, Aladdin travels from the streets of his Arab homeland to a strange, faraway place. Growing up in an orphanage, he meets young Lady Kirstyn, whose father is the powerful Duke of Hagenheim. Despite the difference in their stations, Aladdin quickly becomes Kirstyn’s favorite companion, and their childhood friendship grows into a bond that time and opposition cannot break.

Even as a child, Aladdin works hard, learning all he can from his teachers. Through his integrity, intelligence, and sheer tenacity, he earns a position serving as the duke’s steward. But that isn’t enough to erase the shame of being forced to steal as a small child—or the fact that he’s an orphan with no status. If he ever wants to feel equal to his beautiful and generous friend Kirstyn, he must leave Hagenheim and seek his fortune.

Yet once Aladdin departs, Lady Kirstyn becomes a pawn in a terrible plot. Now, Aladdin and Kirstyn must rely on their bond to save Kirstyn from unexpected danger. But will saving Kirstyn cost Aladdin his newfound status and everything he’s worked so hard to obtain?

An enchanting new version of the well-known fairy tale, The Orphan’s Wish tells a story of courage and loyalty, friendship and love, and reminds us what “family” really means.

(Oh my heart. I'm still attached. LOL!)

Melanie Dickerson is the author of fairy tale retellings set in Medieval Europe, as well as a trilogy of Regency romance novels. Her 14th book releases June 26th. When she's not plotting mean things happening to her characters, she's writing, spending time on facebook, reading devotionals (which she has an addiction to), or panicking over a deadline. Oh, and you can frequently find her in Seekerville, blogging and commenting. Visit her Amazon author page, where you can click the "follow" button and get notified whenever she has a new book out.