Comments on: Tuesday Tip: Don’t Make Your Character a Victim http://www.writerlylife.com/2012/10/tuesday-tip-dont-make-your-character-a-victim/ With daily writing exercises, tips and techniques, and thoughts on the writing life, Writerly Life is for the writer in all of us. Wed, 19 Jun 2013 21:01:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Margaret Fieland http://www.writerlylife.com/2012/10/tuesday-tip-dont-make-your-character-a-victim/comment-page-1/#comment-12293 Margaret Fieland Thu, 18 Oct 2012 20:17:27 +0000 http://www.writerlylife.com/?p=3787#comment-12293 The cascading catastrophes remind me of the series of ads on television about getting, I believe, satellite (or is it dish?).

]]> By: mary brady http://www.writerlylife.com/2012/10/tuesday-tip-dont-make-your-character-a-victim/comment-page-1/#comment-12193 mary brady Wed, 17 Oct 2012 05:08:26 +0000 http://www.writerlylife.com/?p=3787#comment-12193 I agree with Laura. Aren’t all stories some sort of variant on The Hero’s Journey? The key word here is ‘hero’–or ‘heroine.’ No one wants to read about a total sad sack, someone who simply attracts bad luck to no particular end.
(And Wally Lamb is unreadable. It’s a fact!)

The lead character must be hassled endlessly, of course, but it is the victory over such hassles that keeps a reader interested. A lead could start out as a wimp, but at some point must grow a backbone–& fight back Against The Odds!

Post-modern fiction, as I understand it, is not concerned much with storyline, so perhaps wimps & sad sacks & folks with bad karma may find a place in that genre.

What is ‘meta-fiction,’ BLH? Thanks for any info.

L&K, MaryB

]]> By: Laura http://www.writerlylife.com/2012/10/tuesday-tip-dont-make-your-character-a-victim/comment-page-1/#comment-12176 Laura Tue, 16 Oct 2012 17:42:05 +0000 http://www.writerlylife.com/?p=3787#comment-12176 I totally agree! I think the most popular book I ever read that had me rolling my eyes by the end for this very reason was “I Know This Much is True” by Wally Lamb. The character had so many unrelated bad things happen that it just didn’t ring true and for me, I didn’t even feel sorry for the character after awhile. Bad circumstances are a must, but an author would be wise to make those bad circumstances connect and let the character react. So, a car accident that leads to a devastating injury that leads to a relationship break-up and huge hospital bills plus a loss of job, etc, is far more believable than your family dying in a tornado, then getting into a car accident, then your girlfriend dying of smallpox. When everything feels tough, it’s often connected in one way or another, even if it touches various areas of one’s life.

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