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beccaelizabethHave been hearing / seeing some complaints about piling angst on woe on misfortune on characters. I gave up on BSG because it was getting predictable, I just had to imagine the most depressing thing that could happen now. Yet my favourite author says she thinks of plots by thinking "What's the worst thing that I can do to him now?"
So where's the difference?
I was thinking on something from PC's writer workshop - keep track of a character's goals and make sure they either obtain them or fail in satisfying manner.
If you give a character a problem, and then another problem, and then another nother problem, then they never get anywhere. Goals aren't obtained and they keep failing at new things rather than having final fail at some huge thing. No resolution.
So I think it's not that I dislike doing depressing things to characters. I dislike doing depressing things to characters and not giving them a chance to fight back, achieve goals anyway, or change in some way that no longer finds it depressing. It's all setup with no satisfying payoff.
So where's the difference?
I was thinking on something from PC's writer workshop - keep track of a character's goals and make sure they either obtain them or fail in satisfying manner.
If you give a character a problem, and then another problem, and then another nother problem, then they never get anywhere. Goals aren't obtained and they keep failing at new things rather than having final fail at some huge thing. No resolution.
So I think it's not that I dislike doing depressing things to characters. I dislike doing depressing things to characters and not giving them a chance to fight back, achieve goals anyway, or change in some way that no longer finds it depressing. It's all setup with no satisfying payoff.