Does suffering build character?

[Monaka]

If so, how much suffering would you inflict on your characters?

 

[Lloyd]

Yes suffering is needed. Inflict all the suffering.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Same as hardwork.

You can be hardworking and get a chance to toss the coin for success and failure. But if you are not hardworking, all you get is failure.

Suffering itself is a tool, its pressure is used to hammer the sufferer until he is properly forged. Or it can be used to break the person and piece him back together, for better or for the worse. The trick is the aftermath, what did the person learn through the suffering? What is his takeaway from all that?

I give a Maybe because suffering is an entry ticket to build a character, as well as being something that might break a character into something anew.

 

[Ilikewaterkusa]

If so, how much suffering would you inflict on your characters?

George Floyd Taboritskyism Soroism levels of suffering

or maybe just the pain of seeing some dumbass child of yours go to the lettuce section of Costco or whatever and pick the lettuce with his feet, while the whole community just amasses in shock and watches in awe. Eventually you find the clip on international news and now you have the universal embarasdement of raising up a good for nothing loser.

(this literally happened in San Francisco)

 

[Omnifarious]

If so, how much suffering would you inflict on your characters?

Suffering does not build characters

 

[Minx]

Even though I hate suffering, that's why I don't do that often to my character—I hate to say it, but the reader likes it. Especially for the character development.

 

[Lorelliad]

Do it. Cut of an arm or two. Lose a friend

 

[ForestDweller]

Yea, I want an isekai MC that deserves his harem and overpoweredness. So I gave him lots of suffering.

Might end up with ten girls and women crushing on him by the story's end. And him being the most powerful being in the world.

 

[Yairy]

If so, how much suffering would you inflict on your characters?

Enough to leave them traumatized and with trust issues.

 

[Pujimaki]

Just like how Kaneki(TK Ghoul) suffered, just enough so that his hair turned white because it's freaking edgy.

 

[ABCGUY]

Youre all psychopaths wanting to torture youre MC near breaking point



but its not like I hate it

 

[Kenjona]

Ok real world or fiction/ because real world suffering does not build character.

 

[ArcadiaBlade]

If trial = Growth, then Suffering is equal to trial, so Suffering is equal to Growth.

If suffering =/= trial, then suffering isn't equal to growth.

This basically means that unless you use the suffering to further mature the MC into growing up, then suffering isn't used as a tool for growth. Characters are built to understand what their growth is in the story. You can make them funny, sad, depressing or vengeful but you also give them an equivalent exchange to make them relevant to the story.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Ok real world or fiction/ because real world suffering does not build character.

I would beg a differ.

Adequate suffering is another form of hunger, like trials and tribulations. You either evolve and learn how to grow or get your face decked onto the ground hard enough until you learn what NOT to do.

Likewise, having no suffering means that you are in a state of peace and bliss, a joy to be in but sometimes it leads to complacency.

Though this is just my opinion and the term "suffering" might have a different notion to you.

 

[Cipiteca396]

Suffering does not make someone stronger. The ones who survive suffering were already strong to begin with. In both literature and history, only the strongest survive to tell their stories. This creates an illusion that surviving tragedy makes you stronger. Really, the survivors were just lucky.

In fiction, as an author... You can do what you want. Suffering is a viable excuse to change your character's personality. But so is magic. So whatever.

 

[NotaNuffian]

This creates an illusion that surviving tragedy makes you stronger. Really, the survivors were just lucky.

Ah yes, the survivor bias. So you view suffering as nothing like a hardship to be overcome, instead as a disaster to be weathered?

Fair enough on that view.

 

[Deleted member 57675]

Depends. If they just go through hardships and do the same thing as before is there really any change? Don't think that's character growth then.

Now if its something that makes them come out a whole different person or makes them diverge onto a different path they would have not otherwise? Then yes. But is it build character or build change? People change often because of situations they have been put into and its layer ontop of another layer of experiences. It shapes our viewpoints and how we proceed with life. Although there's also some things and some people who will never change either. People are complex.

Make your character not just a sad sob story, but show all angles of them. How they change, how they not change, their perhaps morally grey views depending on the perspective, etc.

The way one sees it, it is bad writing. Bad writing that thinks by shoving a character through something its automatically character growth. If the character ain't doing anything different there really is no character development.

 

[Ilikewaterkusa]

Youre all psychopaths wanting to torture youre MC near breaking point



but its not like I hate it

Yes.

 

[Anon_Y_Mousse]

No, my characters build suffering.

 

[ElliePorter]

Why does this character suffer? Is it required for the story to advance?

Take note that not every character needs to go through hell or have a tragic backstory to be OP or have a glow up moment.