As we get back to our projects, novelists always face the same dilemma: How much should my character “lose” in the story?
Writing Tip for Today: Let’s examine some ways that making your character lose is a winning strategy.
Your Alter Ego
Many of us give our characters the qualities we ourselves have or wish we had. And effective writers also understand that the character should be longing for something passionately. This juxtaposition provides a steady foundation for the story to unfold upon.
Yet as humans, we sometimes fall prey to feeling pity on that character. We can be loath to hold our characters’ feet to the fire—it’s so painful. Additionally, in life, things sometimes happen without a lot of conflict, or losing. These factors can tempt us to go easy on characters in whom we have invested our souls.
Conflict is the basis of story. If you make things easy for your character, chances are your readers will find your story boring. Readers crave stories where they can see themselves, and enjoy watching that character rise to the challenges of overcoming steep obstacles. Remember, your character, unless you’re writing a memoir, is not you.
The Losing Grade
As you craft scenes for your story, remember to think of the conflict/obstacles as a series of troubles that get worse as the story unfolds. Your character needs to battle smaller tensions/roadblocks and gradually work up to the climax, where the biggest trial of all will determine the outcome.
If the biggest trial occurs at the beginning or even in the middle of your story, you’ll have nowhere to make the next scene even more tense. Save the culminating climax, the part that is your character’s final push for the goal, until the end of Act II. As soon as the climax outcome is known, your story is just about over.
The conflict in your novel should stair-step higher and higher until the climax. This means you’ll need believable tension/conflict right from the start, growing higher and higher as the story moves. Then, right before that big climax, be sure to write some kind of “all is lost” moment, where your character seriously almost gives up. This trick will help readers see that your character must summon strength he didn’t know he had for the climax battle.
As soon as the climax outcome is known, your story is just about over.
Changing to a W
By the time your climax scene is over, your character must have learned something. We don’t often change until we’re tested. Allow your character to lose a lot up until the climax to help readers see that the goal is worthy. The character must have changed or learned or grown in some way, even if it’s only to have more belief in oneself.
There are only a few endings to any story. Either the character wins and is happy/unhappy, or the character loses but due to that growth is happy or unhappy about the outcome. It’s tempting to think that readers only care about whether or not the goal is won. But I think it’s more about the satisfaction of character growth and change.
Winning characters win by losing—a lot. Whether or not your character wins or loses, write a story with a character who keeps losing, but always tries again—maybe with renewed strength, knowledge or emotion. Readers can then be more optimistic about their own lives.
