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“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.”
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Love is the Enemy
So, you've created the perfect character. He's a tall, strong warrior with a heart of gold; she's a raven-haired beauty with huge... tracts of land. You've even thrown in a few weaknesses (nothing, of course, as obvious as Kryptonite) because, after all, nobody's perfect. So your hero(ine) is perfect in his or her imperfections. Everyone's going to fall in love with this character. He's the next Harry Potter, or she's the next Xena - only different, because it's your own creation. Sure, he or she will face obstacles in the course of the plot, but they'll be overcome through your character's charm, wit, or flaming sword, right?
There's just one problem.
Nobody cares.
There's a problem with love: it makes us want to protect the object of the emotion, to keep him or her from harm and fatality. Also, it makes us see the person's positive qualities, while dismissing the negative. For an author who has created a character, these feelings are artistic suicide.
The last thing you should want to do is protect the character. To make it an interesting story, you have to be prepared to visit upon your lead all manner of indignities, pressures and, yes, pain. Let your inner sadist come out and waterboard the protagonist. Freeze Han Solo in carbonite. Capture the princess and chain her to a tower. Break the hero's leg with a stray meteorite. Subject the ship's captain to hard vacuum, making it unclear how she's ever going to survive.
Survive she will - but she's got to earn it.
And remember, no matter how lovable the character, there's someone - perhaps an entire country, army, or world; but at least one individual - who hates him. And that hater is just as much YOU as the character is. You're the author; so you're both. What's going through the antagonist's head isn't how hot the protagonist is (though that can certainly enter the picture), but that he or she must be stopped at all costs. Sometimes it's just business; but sometimes, it's pure, visceral hate. And you can't hate your protagonist if you love him.
They say that the opposite of love isn't hate, but indifference, but antagonists aren't usually indifferent to the main character - there's an emotional involvement there.
So by all means, create a main character to whom your readers will be able to relate, maybe even grow to love - but your job isn't to love this character, but to think of all the things you can do to mess with his or her mind. And that takes something other than love.
Love is the enemy of good characterization. |
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Fantasy: August 05, 2009 Issue [#3194]
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