It’s a week after my surgery, and I’m still feeling the side effects. My jaw aches, my incision itches, my stitches pull and I look like I was mugged due to swelling and bruising. When I add in the upset tummy from my medications, I’m a walking, talking mess.
In terms of real life, these side effects stink worse than road-kill skunk. But when applied to writing, they receive serious kudos.
If you read the warning labels on medications, you often note a list of dire consequences along with a disclaimer that “your doctor has deemed the benefits of this medication to outweigh the bad.” This statement implies a choice. The Good Doc has chosen this medicine for a specific reason. In taking it, we choose to put up with the repercussions (side-effects).
Sometimes we don’t have a feckin’ clue what we’re getting ourselves into. We think we know. We imagine we do. We pretend the really bad stuff won’t happen to us. We believe we’ll walk away from the experience better off.
And we might. Or, we might not.
That, my friends, is the beauty of writing. We are doctors prescribing certain actions and medications for our patients. We force our characters to choose.
Do they walk down the dark alley toward the noise or run in the opposite direction? Do they get in the car with their bestie even though Bestie had a fifth too much to drink? Do they make that phone call, go to that game, kiss that girl? Turn left instead of right?
Every choice is fine, as long as we allow our characters to suffer the consequences of their decisions. In short, side effects to character actions are crucial in creating tension and moving the plot along. And only through suffering can the ultimate benefit be reached. Recovery isn’t easy. Not in real life, nor in a great book.
Today I challenge you to medicate your manuscript. Make your characters choose a path. Throw in a nasty side effect or two and watch them suffer, persevere and win. Despite the discomfort. Despite the conflict. Despite the pain.
Do you make your characters choose their actions and hold them to it? How do you make them suffer? How do you relieve their pain? Do you allow your characters to make the wrong choice? If so, how and why?
Curious minds want to know.
Words from the Woods 