Pleasure or Pain? Maybe a little of both? You dirty little bugger.

Without some form of pleasure or some act of pain, our writing would be incredibly dull. Our characters would be boring. Our plot (another P word) would plateau (wow, another one).  Who would want to read  200+ pages about some guy who experienced neither? Not me. Heck no. Bluck. Boring. I’d rather suffer a paper cut (I’m good at this game) on my eyelid. Yes, yes I would.

I like to see characters suffer, even if only a little—though preferably a lot. Does that make me evil? Hmm…maybe. Do I relish the pain and suffering of others? In stories I read, oh YES I do! The more the pain and long-suffering a character experiences, the more enjoyable the read is for me. Just like an old country song in which the wife leaves, the dog disappears, the pickup truck stops working, and the girlfriend is in love with the best drinking buddy. That’s good stuff. That’s a story I want to read.

Will this guy ever become happy again? I want to know.

If the character was happy to begin with, stays happy, and becomes even more happy in the end—that just pisses me off. I hate that. Where’s the fun in that? Simply put, there ain’t none (excuse my use of “ain’t”—I’m in the process of writing my zombie western and I’m trying to stay in the moment while I blog this post. If more western drawl or slang terms come tumblin’ out, please forgive me).

The characters I write tend to suffer more than their fair share of pain. You name it; I throw it at them. It makes them stronger (don’t get me wrong, I try to keep it within the realms of reality—too much pain and I will depress my reader—no fun in that either). It allows the reader to sympathize with the character and root for them as well. The reader becomes their greatest cheerleader and continues to turn the pages in search of that ever hopeful happy ending.

At a writing seminar, one speaker presented this question to the group: “What is the very worst thing you could do to your MC?  What would bring your character to their knees, possibly destroying them completely in the process?”

Think about that. What would nearly kill your character?  You know what it is. I’m not talking about hot lava, earthquakes, silver bullets or stakes in the heart. I’m talking about the deeply emotional stuff.  

Need an example: I give you Harry Potter—for those of you who have seen this particular scene, you know what was done here. For those of you who haven’t, I refuse to tell you. I don’t want to spoil it.

J.K. Rowling did just that. She took from Harry the very thing that propelled him forward (in that book/movie).  It was pure genius.

I know exactly what would destroy my characters. I always have that in the back of my mind. Will I do it? Will I make my characters (my babies) suffer the worst possible scenario? Probably not. Could I? Of course. I think having that knowledge only betters my writing. I know what motivates my character, what pushes them onward. I know their fears—I like to take them to the edge and dangle them over the side. Am I tempted to push them over? No. Not yet. But that would be interesting.  

On the flip side—what about pleasure? Of course, I like that as well (I’m a naughty bird). I love to read about characters who experience pleasure and happiness. No gag me with a spoon details—that just makes me uncomfortable—but I do enjoy a character who’s given a temporary break from the pain, a momentary hiatus from life’s cruelty. They deserve it. They’ve earned it.

But I think I like the pain aspect a tad more.

Maybe I am evil after all.

Where do you reside? Pleasure Town or Painful City? Which do your characters seem to experience more? Please don’t tell me their happy all the time or I’ll send my character over to shoot your character in the leg.

Quotes for your enjoyment:

Pain is a poison; pleasure an intoxicant—Kedar Joshi
Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional—M. Kathleen Casey
Pain makes man think. Thought makes man wise. Wisdom makes life endurable—John Patrick
Pain (any pain--emotional, physical, mental) has a message. The information it has about our life can be remarkably specific, but it usually falls into one of two categories We would be more alive if we did more of this, and, Life would be more lovely if we did less of that. Once we get the pain's message, and follow its advice, the pain goes away—Peter McWilliams