Trust Your Characters, Face Your Fears by Jamie DeBree
For the past six months or so, I've been working on a thriller novella draft that was a bit disturbing in nature, even for me. The psychological issues driving my antagonist are staggering in complexity, and fascinating because of it. He walked the edge of thriller and horror for the better part of the book, and we engaged in a bit of a tug-of-war...me wanting the book to stay in the thriller/suspense genre, and he insisting that he was the star, and he wanted it squarely in the horror camp. Because that's who he was, and that's the kind of effect he had on people.
To make a long story short, I forced him to do things my way (killed him, actually, and replaced him), and ended the story with a denouement suitable for a thriller/suspense audience.
It doesn't work.
Over the past year I've found that the books of mine that readers connect to most are those that explore characters on a deep emotional level. The problem is, and I'm sure other writers will agree with me, it's often rather uncomfortable exploring those emotions, because in order to write them, we have to put ourselves into the mind of the character and turn off our personal filters as much as possible to look at the world through their eyes.
Sometimes that's a very pleasant thing. It allows romance writers to experience the process of falling in love over and over again. Of course we also experience the pain and hurt that goes with the process, but in the end, there's always at least a happily for now that satisfies our soul.
Sometimes though, in order to write certain characters, we have to experience emotions and thoughts that are uncomfortable at best. I don't think there's really any way around this - if we don't understand why our characters do what they do (even the bad guys), there's no way to make those actions seem plausible or realistic. And yes, even bad guys need to come across as having a plausible motive - otherwise the whole story just ends up seeming contrived and unrealistic.
For me, that means trusting my characters - *all* of my characters - to know who they are and what they need, and to follow their lead, rather than trying to force them into a mold that they just don't fit in.
Even if that gets supremely uncomfortable.
The only other real choice (for me, anyway) is to not write that character's story. A valid choice, I suppose, but not one I'd generally make. Once I meet a character, I tend to want to know their story, for better or worse. I'm curious that way.
Needless to say, I'll be going back to that horror novella, deleting the parts where I tried to force it into a specific box, and rewriting it to be true to the character's story. And it will work that way. I'm certain of it.
Moral of this story for me? Face the fear of emotional angst, and trust my characters to take the story where it needs to go.
Do you trust your characters? Do you allow them to tell you their story, or do you try to make them fit into your idea of the story? How does the process work for you?
