Wednesday, May 25, 2011

What Have You Done To Me Lately

Good Morning. In our stories, we're supposed to present our characters challenges. We're supposed to block their path at every turn allowing them to fight to get their end result. This provides the internal and external conflicts. And if that doesn't work, I usually light something on fire.

So far in my books I have:

shot three people
whipped a slave (remember I write historical romance)
thrown a woman, eight months pregnant, down the stairs
beat a man senseless
stabbed someone
given someone a heart attack
brought two ex-lovers back
concealed identities
given someone post traumatic stress syndrome
stolen a baby


And you thought I just wrote romance...

Tell me -- What have you done to your characters lately?

30 comments:

Ted Cross said...

MC's brother was thrown from a 10th floor balcony. Her mother was killed in the next of her chapters. I'm just getting started.

Liza said...

Oh dear...not nearly enough it appears!

Creepy Query Girl said...

OH, I made mine tell her mother about her sister's abortion even though it meant destroying their newfound relationship. ANd she witnessed first hand the man she loves kissing her best friend. POor thing.

Al said...

One of my MCs was interrogated by the NKVD (who made the Gestapo look warm and cuddly) and sent to a Siberian Gulag for something her father did.

Linda G. said...

LOL! You need to spend more time in the bedroom. ;)

Let's see...I've bombed, kidnapped, jabbed with needles, slapped, shot, and stabbed characters. And, believe it or not, I write comedy. ;)

Anne Gallagher said...

Ted -- Off a balconey!!! That's a good one!

Liza -- Then just light a fire somewhere. That always works for me.

Katie -- Oh, you are a MEAN GIRL! Poor thing.

Al -- Siberia, I've heard, is not pleasant.

Linda -- LOL. Remember, I don't write sex. And for someone who writes comedy, that's a pretty impressive list!

Summer Frey said...

Let's see. The MC in the one I just finished was assaulted, then killed the guy; got into many, many fights, some with a sword; was poisoned and barely survived; kidnapped by demons; left eye gouged out and then tortured to death; brought back to life, only to kill her own brother and then have all hers and her people's magic stripped from them.

That's urban fantasy, by the by. And I just ruined the end for anyone who would read it, but that's okay. :)

Christine said...

Early death of heroine's first husband, stalked, thrown in jail, hit by floods and tornadoes (gee wonder where that came from?), abandoned by parents, fired, parents killed in explosion, child beaten...

Yeah, I am a mean girl. And I write funny stories LOL.

Sarah Ahiers said...

oooh! Stolen a baby! Nice.
Let's see... i've torn someone's eye out, killed someone in a war, drowned someone, fed someone to a demon, dropped someone off a cliff, tore someone's head off...and i'm sure there's a lot more i'm just not thinking of

notesfromnadir said...

WOW! I've never seen it outlined like that before.

I've just had a character try to know half the women on MySpace in a very personal & up close kinda way.

Bossy Betty said...

Me thinks someone uses her writing as therapy!!! Love it!

Anthony Lee Collins said...

I'm writing mystery stories right now, so I've had characters murdered (usually stabbed -- guns are really noisy), attempt suicide, get beaten up for being involved in untraditional sexual relationships, crucified, tied up, a twelve-year-old girl sees her older sister for the first time in a year and beats the crap out of her, and someone steals test answers. And someone is tortured into a confession by having their hand pinned to a wall by a large knife. Oh and vampire attacks. And a mass murderer is beaten up for being too masculine (then she shoots the guys). And that's just the stories.

Talli Roland said...

Yikes, you're scary!

I've made them have very bad sex. Enough said!

Anonymous said...

I have broken hearts, killed people off, torn apart families and made them face their greatest fears. Oh wait, were we talknig about me or my characters? Kidding. I love writing!!!!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

You read it, so you know!

Stina said...

Wow, you've reminded me why I used to love historical romances. Nothing like that happens in contempories.

Lydia Kang said...

You are so mean to your characters! Just kidding. Fiction is great.

Stacy McKitrick said...

My heroine was:
turned into a vampire
nearly burned in the sun
staked in the heart (my vampires don't die from that)
shot with arrows
tasered
shoved onto meat hooks
pierced with spikes
(and that was all in a matter of 5 days)

Anita said...

I thought you were way more brutal than me, but then I remembered I tried to burn my character in the basement of a madman. Who are we?! :)

Nicki Elson said...

Hehe, wow, remind me NOT to ever be a character in one of your books. I tend to hurt mine more on an emotional level...oh, but I did just break someone's neck. :D

Susan Flett Swiderski said...

Oh my goodness, and I thought you were so SWEET! Then again, I suppose it's best to go hog wild and get all that negative stuff out of our systems on the written page. Only things I've subjected my characters to is heart attack, stroke, and a car accident. The knives in the back are merely figurative.

Anne Gallagher said...

Summer -- And that's all in just one book? Mine are spread over three.

Christine -- I never would have expected all that from you. You're such a southern peach.

Sarah -- Yeah, the stolen baby is a good one -- it comes in two parts. First she gets stolen by her father, then she gets stolen back by her mother's boyfriend.

Lisa -- That wouldn't be Scotty by any chance now, would it? Seems like something he would do.

Betty -- Not so much therapy as I just can't keep blowing up the same buildings. I've got to keep finding new stuff!

Anthony -- I am so going to have to remember that point about stabbing someone. Guns are really noisy.

Talli -- Really bad sex is scary too!!!

Rebecca -- I know, huh? I suppose half of us could get our plot lines from 48 hours.

Alex -- Yeah, and it was GREAT!!!

Stina -- I know. No one would believe it. Right?

Lydia -- I'm mean in a very gentle way. Nobody dies, not even the jerkface bad guy. But I do put my characters through hell and back.

Stacy -- Shoved onto meat hooks!????? EWWWW. Good job!!!

Anita -- Who are we???? We're damn fine writers, that's who.

Nicki -- It goes without saying all my characters are torn emotionally asunder, as well as being physically brutalized.

Susan -- I am sweet. I just like to give my characters what-for every once in awhile.

J.L. Campbell said...

You've been running amok, haven't you? :)
You're not the only one. I'm a lot tamer lately, I've only had a kidnapping, a stabbing and a near drowning and yeah, I write romance.

Anonymous said...

Whoa...! My characters haven't even done one on your list. I can see why historical romance could be brutally fun!

Anne Gallagher said...

Joy -- Isn't it fun to be amok? I've never thought about drowning, I'll have to add that to my list.

Lynn -- Historical romance is the BOMB!

L. Diane Wolfe said...

I haven't killed a main character, but a couple parents die. Two surprised pregnancies. Those are always fun. Oh and a minor character tried to kill herself.

Anne Gallagher said...

L. Diane -- I don't think I've done a surprise pregnancy, but there was a miscarriage. That was a bombshell moment that's for sure.

Jennifer Hillier said...

You are bad ass! I'm glad I'm not a character in your book!

I've done some, uh, mean thing to characters in my books, but I write thrillers, so I kind of have to. Stalking, kidnapping, murder, and dismemberment might have happened once or twice...

Anne R. Allen said...

We are so evil! This week my heroine found out her house was burning down just as she was being wheeled into the operating room for surgery. When she came out of the anesthesia, she found out her husband died in the fire--after losing all their money. The police are looking for HER as a suspect. So she sort of steals a car and somebody's wallet and goes in search of the real killer. That's chapter one.

Anne Gallagher said...

Jennifer -- Kidnapping, Murder, Dismemberment...You say it like it's an every day thing... lol.

Anne -- Good Lord Almighty! All this in Chapter 1! Talk about inciting incident. You go girl!!