How harsh are you on your main characters?

[RootBeerBert]

Do they just cruise through their stories? Or are they usually suffering one way or another? Or do you go for a balance of something bad every once in a while?

 

[Thraben]

I will throw C'thulu at them. Whether they choose to suffer the knowledge or revel in Eldritch attention it is up to their personality.

 

[RepresentingEnvy]

My main characters usually have it pretty nice, to be honest. My writing is wish-fulfillment for the most part, with a dash of adventure and GL.

 

[georgelee5786]

Off and on harsh

 

[K5Rakitan]

I don't give them anything they can't handle.

 

[Paul_Tromba]

He wishes he could vacation in hell

 

[HelloHound]

she's fine, don't worry about it

 

[Gryphon]

Considering the majority of my main characters are either horribly deformed, turn evil, or straight up die by the end of my stories, I'd say I'm not hard enough.

 

[Thraben]

Considering the majority of my main characters are either horribly deformed, turn evil, or straight up die by the end of my stories, I'd say I'm not hard enough.

Try smushing them into unrecognizable smears on various surfaces instead of simply stabbing or exploding them, it always takes the edge off for me.

 

[LuoirM]

are you familiar of how much AM hated its human creator?

 

[Jessie_Emilyn]

I can be harsh enough a friend thinks I have problems and objects to some of my endings. In fact some of my unreleased writing is so bad one got my friend to hate it enough I changed the ending so they survived with a happy ever after (they still paid for it with more suffering >.<). Granted not all of my stories are that bad, another in the works I sent them to the hospital because they mentally broke badly enough, poor kid (teenager but yeah), she does get a happy ending but it isn't an easy road at times.

So yes I can go pretty dark and I am very much for 'earn your happy endings' compared to sunshine and butterflies. Granted my writing is pretty varying, I just find it easy to be harsh to my characters. I honestly just feel happy ever after is a myth, I think people feel pain and sadness in life and while I can have good gentle moments characters never suffering feels odd. I don't think I have ever gone pure wish fulfillment. I guess when your life has had more depression than happiness it can be hard to be positive (things have gotten better in life).

 

[QuercusMalus]

There is usually some part where they are dancing to the trauma conga.

 

[Lloyd]

Make them suffer.

 

[ThatTwat3000]

Do they just cruise through their stories? Or are they usually suffering one way or another? Or do you go for a balance of something bad every once in a while?

They’re pretty okay. Sometimes I kill off a character just so readers realize the pain and suffering isn’t always going to have a solution, and that the rest of the characters need to work towards attaining the solution.

 

[BearlyAlive]

One got put into a coma and had his soul ripped out of his body by his former co-worker, another one got fired from his job for doing his job just when he had money problems and another got invited into a death game by his half-sister so he could free their parents.

But that's about the worst that happened to them. It only gets upwards from there.

 

[Simple_Russian_Boi]

If they're alive by the end of the novel - it's my fault. I haven't tried hard enough.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

I will throw C'thulu at them. Whether they choose to suffer the knowledge or revel in Eldritch attention it is up to their personality.

Why you gotta throw shade on eldritch abominations that should not be?
Just because we want to destroy all that lives we're the bad guys?
I mean, Disney says there is no good and evil, only shades of grey.
Evil spelled backward is LIVE, and we all want to do that, don't we?

We just clearly want to live more than you.

 

[Thraben]

Why you gotta throw shade on eldritch abominations that should not be?
Just because we want to destroy all that lives we're the bad guys?
I mean, Disney says there is no good and evil, only shades of grey.
Evil spelled backward is LIVE, and we all want to do that, don't we?

We just clearly want to live more than you.

Look, all I'm saying is that is that there are two types of people:

The people that get scared when the void stares back


And the people that blush.

 

[Zagaroth]

Mixed. The story pretty much starts at the point of things getting better for the three MCs after each has had some bad history one way or another. But there is a building threat that they are going to have to deal with, and history catching up with one character has recently caused suffering for the other two, which hurts the first character more than direct suffering would have. When the ones you love suffer, you suffer. And when their suffering is indirectly your fault...

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

Depend on the story itself.

Usually, the thing that affect the most is the theme and genres, with the additional "audience target" factor included.

An MC in the story about slow slice of life cafe owner, would habe a laid back life and not quite harsh treatment, despite the struggle here and there.

Logically, he wouldn't have a very harsh life like a MC from a story about warrior attacking the demon army in the middle of human-demon war.

As a writer, you can write anything you want, as long you write for yourself.

Buy, when you want to share your writing to others, writers usually cares a lot about their expectations.