Bad Things Happen to Good People

by Susan Berger

Human beings have a built in safety net which prevents us from physically hurting ourselves. (Slap yourself really hard. Go ahead. Try it. Note that your hand will pull back at the last second to lessen the force of the blow.) I suspect that this safety net may be interfering with my ability to make bad things happen to my characters. After all the characters I create are part of me. I know I have to get past this.

Bad things happen to good people. It is my job as an author to make that true. Bad things happening are what make a story interesting. Where would Cinderella be without her wicked stepmother? Would the story of the Three Little Pigs be memorable without the wolf?

That thought led me to Jon Scieszka’s The True Story of the Three Little Pigs as told by A. Wolf. It’s a whole other (wonderfully funny) story when you hear it from the wolf’s point of view.

What if I tried telling my story from my other character’s point of view? (I want to do this with at least two of my other characters). What would I learn about my hero? What faults have I not exploited? What virtues?
I invite you to try this as a writing exercise.

A. Pick a scene in your story and tell it from another character’s point of view.
B. Describe the hero from the villain’s point of view

Here are some sample questions to ask the villain or secondary character:

1 Describe (your hero) physically.
2. What is their best quality?
3. What is their worst quality or what really annoys you about (your hero)?
4. Describe (your hero)’s friends.
5. What is something you know about (your hero) that you don’t think (your hero) knows about themselves?
6. What do you think (your hero) is most afraid of?

Happy writing!