Monday 28 February 2011

You Always Hurt the One You Love

I seem to be in song title mode at the moment (see my earlier post It Ain't What You Say It's the Way That You Say It) but here's a little pinch of plotting snuff for you to breath in deeply.

When you are thinking about constructing a plot, at some point -- this is going to sound unkind of me, I know -- it is an excellent idea to punish a sympathetic character, ideally your hero or someone close to them, by ensuring that something truly dreadful happens to them. Your reader will find it extremely hard to bear any wanton act of cruelty towards  a character to whom they have become deeply attached, and the calamity will have the effect of drawing them far more closely into your story, as they will be waiting with bated breath to see if everything comes right in the end.

Simples!

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