I’ve been working on characters. Still.

I’m the Kind of Person Who. . .

One suggestion I’ve seen lately is the idea of embracing emotion. For example, suppose a character is angry at someone, but they need to have an ongoing relationship.

A character might be tempted to say, No, it’s not possible. When I’m insulted like that, I’m the kind of person who can’t forgive and forget.

“I’m not the kind of person. . . “ By focusing on the negative, what the character would NOT do, you are shutting off a lot of potential emotion, creating a dead zone.

What happens if instead, you acknowledge that the offending person is still loved, but the source of hurt. Then, you have a more nuanced character relationship.

“I’m the kind of person who . . .” won’t let go of a relationship, no matter how painful. That leads to stronger conflict! Just what we want. Major conflict to keep the reader glued to the page.

You know–it’s exactly what makes romances work. The girl falls in love, but immediately has reasons why she can’t love this jerk. But of course, in the end, he’s redeemed as not a jerk and she does love him.

Try to find the positive side of a character relationship and embrace the pain of continuing in the relationship. Find the paradoxical emotions that exist and use them to create deeper relationships.

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Using a Character Bible to Deepen Conflict

One item I keep returning to as I struggle with plotting and writing the opening of this new novel is my Character Bible.

My WIP is a complex novel with a dozen characters, all of whom need to stay straight in my reader’s mind. Which means I need to keep them straight. I created a “Bible” for the characters and keep adding to it, realigning relationships, tweaking descriptions, etc. as I work.

Here’s what’s in my Character Bible:

• Name
• Family
• Description
• Relationships
• Back Story
• Age
• Unique Qualities
• Attitudes about things related to the story

Some days I just work on the Character Bible, trying to add conflict among characters.

Love Conflict. For example, my main character is a teen girl and she meets a teen guy. One day, I just worked on how they relate to one another. I decided to give the guy a false bravado, so he’s always trying to pick up the girl. I looked up cheesy one-liners online and found some real gems:

• You look cold. Want to use me as a blanket?
• If I had a star for every time you brightened my day, I’d have a galaxy in my hand.
• I was wondering if you had an extra heart, mine seems to be stolen.
• Me without you is like a nerd without braces, a shoes without laces, aSentenceWithoutSpaces.

Whoa! What fun this will be to find/create/use the cheesiest ones possible.

Attitudes about Athletics. Another conflict that needs to occur is between three characters about the topic of what makes a person an athlete. There’s a former ballet star (male) now turned overweight chef, a high school senior cheerleader, and a chip-on-the-shoulder, about to be the big 4-0 years old tennis coach (female).

What makes the conflict between them work is the conflicting back story and their different stages of life. This is one of the minor conflicts in the story, not something major. But it has potential to add humor if done right.

I like sharpening the conflict while working with the Character Bible before I ever put it into the story itself. It’s helping me clarify the characters and get fixed in my mind the conflicts that should come out as I write.

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Give Readers a Larger Than Life Protagonist

In my new novel, I’ve written about a dozen different openings, looking for a voice that works. I’m settling in on one, but the first chapter is still unsteady.

One thing I’m looking at today is how to make the main character, the protagonist, larger-than-life. In Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook, Donald Maass emphasizes the need for characters who rise above the ordinary and do it right away, in chapter one.

Maass suggests, for example, that you think of things your protagonist would never ever say, think or do; then find a situation in which they MUST say, think or do that very thing.

Maass says, “What qualifies as larger-than-life action? Winking at a stranger is easy for a flirt; to a shy person it is huge. Taking a swing at someone is no big deal for a boxer; for me, it would be life changing. Whatever it is, it is a surprise. It feels big. It feels outrageous.” (p.31)

Use Placeholders for Zingers

Also, use placeholders for dialogue, description, etc. Mark these clearly as placeholders, so you remember to come back and put in some type of Zinger! Make that bit of your novel memorable in some way.

I like this idea a lot because I don’t think fast on my feet. I’d be terrible at public debates. I can however, with time, think of a great retort. That’s what this is. Thinking of that great way of saying something and adding it later. It’s nice to know that I can write the basics of a novel and go back later to add in the good stuff.

Turn Up the Volume

Another way to say this is to turn up the volume. Or turn it down. In other words, use a range of characterization that provides quiet spots and gloriously large spots. A wide dynamic range. Don’t forget about the quiet spots, they are needed for contrast.

Random Acts of Publicity Week September 7-10

Have you joined The Random Acts of Publicity Week event page on Facebook?

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When should your characters notice and comment on something and when should it be just subtly included?

Subtext is when something is going on in the story, but it’s only mentioned in passing, slantwise, or it’s just understood. Often, subtext comes out in dialogue, the unspoken things that the audience understands from knowing the characters and their relationship. But it can also be used in description.

For example, I recently read a story about a Muslim high school girl. The author had pointed out on the first page that the girl wore a hajib, the traditional head covering. Of course, it’s appropriate and of course, the reader needs to know this information. But how to convey it?

The point of the story is how a Muslim girl gets along in high school, so it’s fine to point this out on the first page. But, is it best? Should this first person narrator mention it directly? Would she mention it? Maybe. But maybe it would be better to slip it in sideways?

How to do that? The story starts in a chemistry classroom with the teacher talking about safety in using the bunsen burner. What if the hajib had a long tail, similar to a long scarf? Then, the character could just casually throw that scarf part over her shoulder for safety’s sake. Job accomplished. We see the scarf and understand her religious affiliation.

That accomplishes the same thing as telling about the character’s clothing, but it does it casually. The head covering is a natural part of the story, not introduced in an overt way.

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Mini-Conflicts Help Characters Stand Out

For my WIP, I’m spending the week fleshing out characters.

I”ve written about characters many times.
Here’s a Character Checklist, and 15 Days to a Stronger Character, and many other posts on character.

At this stage in character development, I’m mostly concerned with creating an interesting mix. For this story, there’s a crowd of characters which could get confusing for the reader unless each character is, well, a character! Unique. Compelling.

They must be different in at least these ways:
Description. I need a wide variety from fat to anorexic, tall to short, white to black, and young to old. Beyond that, there are so many variations! Hair can be wild or tame, big or missing.
Eyebrows fascinate me: drawn on or so hairy that they grow together in the middle.
Teeth: laser white, yellow, rotten, dentures, cracked, gaps.

Speech: With a background in speech pathology, I pay attention to this one for sure. I try not to put stuttering in too much (which means I never allow myself to do that for fear of doing it too much). Accents are a way to distinguish someone. Dialects are fascinating to study, for example the difference between Bostonians and New Orleans residents.

Movement: Those teens who sag&bag, walk with one hand on their waist band, hitching up the shorts/pants every other step. (Watch Pants on the Ground – the man who inspired a surge in the belt market.) Something like that, tied to the unique clothing style is what I’m looking for.

Create Mini-Conflicts

Of course, there are other ways, but you get the idea. What I’m especially looking for is the interaction between characters and their descriptions. For example, if there’s a sag&bag teen, there needs to be another character who despises that type of dress; and of course, those two characters need to come into direct conflict.

I’m matching up the characters for mini-conflicts like this. They won’t be the main plot, but will add comic relief, extra bits of tension, and variety to the novel. Doing this at this early stage will build in more potential, more material to work with as I start the first draft.

How do you make your characters stand out?

PR Notes Question of the Week

If you didn’t see Sunday’s post, I’ve asked a question about book promotion: If you had $1000 to spend on book promotion, how would you spend it? I’d love to hear a wide variety of responses this week. Please comment here.

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Are there untouchable topics in literature? No, of course, not. But there are topics that are difficult to do well, or it feels like you are preaching.
You know the ones: alcoholism, abortion, medical ethics, underage drinking, etc. These are hard to put into a story or novel and have it work.

Dealing with Flash point, Difficult Topics

I’ve been listening to Mary E. Pearson’s novel, The Adoration of Jenna Fox and she does a stunning job of addressing medical ethics. It’s reminiscent of Peter Dickinson’s 1989 novel, Eva, but takes the discussion in new directions. Here are some of the things she does right as an author treading lightly.

Character. The novel works because the character is front and center. This is above all a character novel, with all the ethical dilemma from the medical “miracle” taking place within the character. She IS the ethical problem and has to resolve how she feels about herself. So, it’s not a theoretical issue; it’s an issue of identity.

Voice. Written in first person, the character’s voice is stunning. First person was a good choice, because it allows the reader to experience the dilemma along with the character. The voice never falters, it’s flawless.

Backstory. The bane of any sort of difficult topic is the mountain of data, the historical arguments, the cultural context. It is a trap, though, for the unwary author who tries to insert all this back story into the novel. Pearson walks that fine line between planting necessary information, but putting it in naturally.

All sides are presented fairly. Pearson populates the story with a variety of characters who represent the various points of view about this question of medical ethics. This is perhaps the hardest thing to do in a novel dealing with issues that set off fireworks in our culture. It’s easy to include stereotypes, believe cliches. Instead, Pearson creates fully developed characters who are passionate about issues, but are conflicted by the dilemma that confronts them. The grandmother, the friend at school, the mysterious next-door neighbor — each has a life perspective to bring to the story that enriches the conflict, without cheapening it.

Are you passionate about some topic facing our culture? I’d recommend you read this book just for pure enjoyment of Pearson’s language and storytelling. Then, re-read it, study it, as an example of how to do it right.

It’s sold movie rights: we can only hope they do the novel justice.
Also see the website for the book, Who is Jenna Fox?

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Ever wonder if you’re good at characterization in your novel or story? A good way to evaluate your skill in characterization is the Page 5 Test.

Page 5 Test: Are you Good at Characterization?

1. Read the first five pages of your manuscript.
2. Turn over page 5 and on the back, write everything you know about the main character from those first 5 pages.
3. Things to record: name, age, location, family role and family details, likes, dislikes, fears, passions, ways of speaking, verbal tics, physical characteristics and tics.
• No fair cheating and adding things that you KNOW about the character.
• No fair looking back; the characterization must be sharp enough that the character starts to come to life and your reader doesn’t have to look up details.

Stop! Go do the Page 5 Test on your WIP Right NOW. Then come back

Good characterization or Poor Characterization?

Now it’s time to evaluate how well you did. Here are some things the Page 5 Test might reveal.

1. Lack of information. Often basic information is missing in the first five pages. Often in 1st person novels, the character’s name isn’t given until way after page 5. I know I’m in this character’s head and I know there are stupid and cliched ways to work in a person’s name. But I want to know the character’s name, please. At least by the end of page 5.
2. Boring. The character’s voice, whether the story is 1st or 3rd, is cliched and boring. Well, it’s hard to be honest about this! If you can’t be, hand the story to a friend or colleague. Lie, and tell them that this is a manuscript you’re reading for a friend; or tell them it’s a manuscript by whatever famous author you’d like to emulate. Ask your reader: after page 5, would you keep reading? Why or why not?



3. Shallow. Often, we know the character’s name, maybe their age, one or two things about family, their physical appearance (often in great detail) and. . .well, not much more. The characterization is shallow. We get a cartoon character like Betty Boop. We don’t know or care about this character yet. That translates into a reader shutting the book and not reading further!

Celebrate the Good, Fix the Needy Characterization

Not to worry. We all know that first drafts (and sometimes even 8th drafts are just . . . unspeakably bad. But that’s what the next draft is for.

First, NOTICE WHAT YOU DID WELL! I put that in caps, because otherwise, you’ll be like me and skip the good part. You did something well. Notice this! Celebrate.

But, also realize you have room for improvement. In the next draft, maybe you need to work on:

• Voice. You may actually know this character inside and out, but just didn’t capture them on the page. In that case, you’ll need to experiment with voice for the character and narrative voice for your story.
• Plot. While you’re doing experimenting for voice, you may need to try three or four different opening scenes, until you find one that allows for a rich development of both plot and character. Remember, we don’t need to have all the backstory up front; we don’t need to have all the character questions answered. What we need is to be intrigued by this person and want to know more. That’s why we read on.

Most people read a novel or story to become acquainted with people. Grab them up front with a great character and you’ll keep the reader for the long haul.

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In two or three years, will we see lots of books with characters named Isabella and Jacob? It’s likely.

Obama’s and Twilight’s Names are Popular: Barack and Malia

The Social Security Administration tracks the most popular names and says that the changes this year bring Isabella and Jacob to the top. However, President Obama’s family has had the biggest impact on names, followed by the book/movie, Twilight.

The name Barack rose in popularity from 1,993rd to 2,424th in popularity. Not a bad rise percentage-wise. But Barack was outdone by his oldest daughter, Malia. The name Maliyah (a variant spelling) rose from 345th to 192nd in popularity.

The lift for the name Jacob might have come from Twilight. But for sure, Cullen’s rise comes from the popular vampire movie. It rose from 485th to 782nd.

SSA Resource for Names

Character. But how does this affect your novel? Names evoke character. I think I’ve repeated before the story about Scarlett O’Hara. Her name was originally “Pansy.” What a difference a name made here! Of course, you can choose to contrast or compliment character qualities, so maybe Pansy would have worked? Nah! Not in Gone with the Wind!

Historically Appropriate. Probably the best use of the SSA baby name site is to scroll down to the form where you can input a date to see the most popular names by year, starting with 1880! What a great resource for naming characters in a historical novel.

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“It Suddenly Dawned on Her”: Improving Your Character Epiphanies

“And then, it suddenly dawned on her.”
That phrase is the ultimate cliche for a character epiphany. The term epiphany was originally a religious term referring to the physical appearance of a deity. In fiction, it’s the point at which truth appears before a character; the character learns or understands something.

Elaine Marie Alphin, author of Creating Characters Kids Will Love (Writer’s Digest) and several novels, says, “The epiphany is the moment of self-realization; it’s when the character’s change and growth hits him or her, even if the character doesn’t fully understand it.”

As an example, Alphin points to the epiphany in her novel, The Perfect Shot (Carolrhoda). She says, “Brian is a high school basketball player who has always believed what you do on the court, you do in life. However, as he approaches a major game he knows he’s hiding important information in a murder investigation, information that could save an innocent man’s life. He’s been threatened to stay silent, but as he goes into the game, he doesn’t feel good about himself and his play on the court reflects his confusion.” In this excerpt from the half-time scene, Amanda is his former-girlfriend, one of the murder victims:

“But I don’t buy it–because when we play like a team, when we’re there for each other, we’re unstoppable.”
As I say the words, I know what I’m going to do. I’m not living scared of that flat, dead voice forever, thinking I don’t stand a chance against him [the murderer]. I’m going to be there for Amanda, not keep her from getting justice by keeping my mouth shut. . . I’m going to talk to [that reporter]. . . Knowing the decision is made, and it’s right, I know I’m going to lead the Warriors back onto that court looking like a different team.”

Brian’s realization that he can’t live in fear is the epiphany that puts him on the path of catching the murderer.

Epiphany v. Climax

An epiphany sounds like the high point of a story. Does that mean it’s the climax of the story? Janni Simner, author of the middle grade novel, Secret of the Three Treasures, says, “I tend to think of the epiphany as part of the character’s internal arc, while I think of the climax as external. Even though, of course, internal and external arcs really tend to be intertwined in various ways.”

The epiphany demonstrates the growth that a character makes as a result of the story’s actions. In structuring a story, this means that the epiphany is near the climax, since the internal and external arcs usually coincide. In practice, though, there are variations.

Simner points to Madeline L’engle’s classic story, A Wrinkle in Time, nosim?tag=darpatsrevnot-20 as an example of the epiphany and climax happening together. “On Camazotz, Meg Murray realizes that ‘like and equal are not the same thing,’ and that it’s OK for people to be different from one another. This is the point where she believes it; and that belief and acceptance allows her to also love and accept–and rescue–her brother Charles Wallace.”

Sometimes, though, the epiphany comes before the climax and causes the climax. In Mary E. Pearson’s novel, A Room on Lorelei Street (Holt), which was a 2005 Golden Kite winner, Zoe has been trying to separate herself from her family and their troubles. But in a tight spot for money Zoe has spent time at a local motel with a generous customer. Carlos sees her getting out of the customer’s car.

He smiles. A quick, jerky smile she hasn’t seen before. . .
“Carlos–”
“You don’t need to explain.”
She doesn’t. She is floating, hovering somewhere outside herself. A hollow distance that can’t be measured. Far, but as close as skin to skin. She looks at his eyes.
She reads them.
She recognizes them.
They are her eyes. Her own eyes.
Her own eyes looking at Mama.

Pearson says, “This is a turning point for Zoe, a realization that she is following in the very footsteps she had sought to avoid. From here a climax follows which spawns further epiphanies and Zoe is pushed to a final decision.”

By contrast, Simner’s book, Secret of the Three Treasures, places the epiphany after the climax. In a climactic scene, Tierney West has just taken her place in the world as a professional adventurer, with one adventure behind her and many more ahead. This allows her to accept her mother as a non-adventurer. Tierney demonstrates her acceptance by inviting her mother to have dessert with her and a fellow adventurer–a small, but important gesture. Looking at her Mom, Tierney thinks:

“I wondered whether one day she would understand better about adventuring, if I was patient like Jane Grey said. Adventurers aren’t good at being patient–but if T.J. Redstone could wait six months to translate a single coded missive, if Dad could wait five years for the first T.J. book to sell–maybe I could wait, too.”

Simner says, “I think that’s the point–very close to the end–where Tiernay decides that she can make the effort to live in a world filled with non-adventurers, at least when those non-adventurers are people who are important in other ways.”

In relation to the climax, then, epiphanies can come before (to trigger the climax), during (to spin it in a different direction, or move it along) or after (as a grace note in the denouement).

Variations on Ephiphanies

Pearson mentioned that Zoe’s epiphany is followed by further epiphanies. Often, there are multiple epiphanies in a story, as the character grows and grows. How many epiphanies is enough? There’s no right answer, because stories vary widely. As many as your story needs, is the best answer possible. Evaluate the character’s arc to see when and where it’s appropriate for characters to experience an epiphany. In fact, Pearson points out that not every main character has an epiphany. “There are exceptions, especially where the main character is an unreliable narrator, and in that case, the epiphany may still occur, except that it is the reader who experiences it and not the protagonist of the story.”

Is the main character the only who has an epiphany?

In Alphin’s story, The Perfect Shot, the secondary character Julius realizes the importance of the team effort at the same time that Brian does. Alphin explains that, “Julius, Brian’s best friend is the high scoring star player and also one of the few black kids in their small, white Indiana town. When he’s pulled over by city policemen, he calls on Brian for help. The police encounter turns Julius into a ball hog. Worse–he trusts no one on the team.”

“Trust me,” I (Brian) tell them. “I’ll be there for you the rest of the game. I trust you guys to be there for me.”
They crowd around me, hands stretching into the center of our circle, gripping hard. Julius’s hand comes down last, crowning the clasp.
“Team!”
Julius hold onto us for a long moment. Then he whispers, “Team.”

Epiphanies Gone Wrong

Writing an epiphany can be tricky because this is a crucial moment in most stories. It needs to be right. Here are some common mistakes and their cures:

1. “It Suddenly Dawned on Her.” Telling the epiphany rarely works because it doesn’t allow the reader to experience the epiphany. To cure this type epiphany, use action and imagery to indirectly reveal truth.

   In my fantasy novel, The Wayfinder, Win has traveled through the depths of grief over losing his sister, Zanna, and emerged stronger. But he has to deal with his grief one more time, as Paz Naamit, the giant eagle flies him back over the Rift (a deep canyon) to his home.

   “Win rose and helped Lady Kala climbed onto the broad back of the eagle. When they were both seated, the eagle gave a mighty leap. Her wings spread majestically, and they sailed out over the Rift. Far below, the shiny ribbon of water was still in deep shadow. . .Win’s right hand crept into his pocket and pulled out the white rock from Zanna’a cairn. He had traveled through the depths of the Rift and fought his way to the top and across to the black sand of the Well of Life, then back across the prairie to the Rift again–and Zanna was in none of those places.
   Instead she was with him and in him. . . For as long as there were memories or words, Zanna would live. For a moment he hefted the bone white stone in his hand, then reared back and threw it into the Rift, back into the depths from which it had come. It fell soundlessly, and he didn’t know when or where it landed. Paz Naamit caught an updraft and spiraled higher and higher. Win laid a hand on Lady Kala’s warm back and turned toward G’il Rim and home.”

   The symbolic white rock and the giant eagle spiraling higher demonstrate that Win has gone to a higher plane of understanding.

2. “Let Me Tell You the Truth.” The epiphany often demonstrates some eternal truth, but it’s a mistake to just state that truth as fact. Instead, allow the reader to follow the process of learning or understanding the truth. We tell stories because the actions of the story illustrate the principles.

   In the Wizard of Oz, Glinda asks Dorothy, “What have you learned?”
   Dorothy doesn’t just state, “There’s no place like home.” Because of everything that has gone before, she feels it with all her heart, And so does the reader.

3. “Suddenly Golden Light Washed Over Her.” Overblown language can ruin an epiphany. Instead, stick to solid actions, strong verbs, concrete images.

   In Alphin’s novel, The Perfect Shot, the team is finally working together. Brian calls to a teammate to give up the ball to “Shooter” who is in a good position to take a last shot, the shot that will determine if they win the game. What’s implied here is winning not just this particular basketball game, but the teamwork needed to succeed in life.

   “But Julius gets the message. In the first half he would have forced the shot, but now he flicks the ball behind his head, a blind pass to Shooter. Shooter takes the pass and, in a single motion, shoots up into the air from just behind the three-point line, his arm muscles flexing as he launches the ball into space. The buzzer sounds as all eyes watch the ball, now falling back toward earth, heading for the target: a small round hole hovering in the space between it and the floor.
   Swish–the perfect shot!”

4. “I Haven’t Mentioned This Before, But. . . .” An epiphany has to be a natural outgrowth of the story and not tacked on. Instead build in a cause-effect relationship; the stories events cause the epiphany.

   In Katherine Paterson’s classic story, Bridge to Terabithia, the epiphany comes a few pages before the ending. Here, Jess is reflecting on his friendship with Leslie, who has drowned.

   He thought about it all day, how before Leslie came, he had been a nothing–a stupid, weird little kid who drew funny pictures and chased around a cow field trying to act big–trying to hide with a mob of foolish little fears running riot inside his gut.
   It was Leslie who had taken him from the cow pasture into Terabithia and turned him into a king. He had thought that was it. Wasn’t king the best you could be? Now it occurred to him that perhaps Terabithia was like a castle where you came to be knighted. After you stayed for a while and grew strong you had to move on. . . . .Now it was time for him to move out. She wasn’t there, so he must go for both of them. It was up to him to pay back to the world in beauty and caring what Leslie had loaned him in vision and strength.

   This epiphany sets up the last scene where Jess takes his little sister, May Belle, and introduces her as the new queen of Terabithia. Everything, including the epiphany, has led up to this poignant moment.

5. “I’m So Wonderful to Understand This.” When first-person narrator has an epiphany, it could become a moment of self-congratulation that sends the reader running. Instead, let the readers have the epiphany. Or, let the narrator report on someone else’s epiphany.

   Alphin handles this well in The Perfect Shot, where the first person narrator has both internal dialogue and demonstrates the epiphany with actions.

6. “I Had an Epiphany. Didn’t I?” Sometimes the epiphany is too obscure and not obvious enough to the reader. Or the expression of the epiphany is, well, boring. Instead, the epiphany should be carefully worded so the reader interprets it as an important moment. It’s a balance between the fireworks of overblown language and the quicksand of an understated epiphany.

Epiphany Tips for your Novel

Writers need to learn to handle epiphanies well. Novels are about something happening and in the midst of this action, a character changes and grows. Simner, Alphin and Pearson give final tips about writing epiphanies.

Simner rarely knows the character epiphany at the planning stage of a novel. “I write the story and I listen to my characters, and usually at the crucial moment, my main character will tell me what he or she has realized. I find I can plan out other things, but epiphanies–for me–have to arise out of the writing process itself.”

Pearson echoes Simner’s approach: “Let the epiphany grow naturally out of the story. In A Room on Lorelei Street, I realized about the same time as the main character what she needed to do in order to have her deepest need met. I didn’t write ‘toward’ that epiphany, it just finally all added up to the character and consequently, to me, so it was there for me to write down.”

Knowing the epiphany up front can be tricky. Alphin says, “Probably the biggest pitfall is that the writer knows what the epiphany is and what it means, but the main character is just discovering it, so the writer tends to explain it beyond what the main character understands yet. Because the epiphany is so obvious to the writer, the element of stunned realization that the main character experiences tends to be underplayed and instead the reader is told about the significance of the epiphany of experiencing it along with the character.”

Epiphanies are an emotional high point or the emotional climax of a character’s emotional arc. As such, writers who consciously tweak the epiphany for maximum impact will create stories that tug at the hearts of readers.
This article originally appeared in Children’s Writer Guide to 2008, Writer’s Institute.

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Are you in Pain? Question for your character.

So, I’m sitting at the hosptial, waiting for my husband to follow in Harry Smith’s footsteps and get the Couric Procedure (screening colonoscopy). Every wall has a sign asking, “Are you in pain?

• 0 No Pain/Happy face
• 1-3 Mild Pain/straight line mouth
• 4-6 Moderate pain/small frown
• 7-9 Severe pain/big frown
• 10 Worst pain/deep frown and tears

Of course, it made me think about character pain.

Physical pain may or may not be present in a story. But it’s the emotional pain that creates strong stories.

No pain. In general, a character should never feel a 0 on the Pain Scale, even in the opening; well, maybe in the conclusion, but even there, characters often has residual pain.

Mild pain. This is appropriate for the opening of a story, before the conflict which sends the character into act 2. It’s also appropriate for the conclusion, where the story is wrapped up. You’d never want this for the middle of the story or especially the climax.

Moderate pain. Act 2 should be characerized by at least this level of pain throughout, with mild or severe pain for places of emotional rest or stress.

Severe pain. Act 2 and 3 should have spikes of severe pain, as the emotional crisis of the story heats up.

Worst pain. This would normally be reserved for the climax of the story.

Subjective Scale

The pain scale is a subjective scale, asking a patient how much s/he hurts. My husband has a higher pain threshold than I do, for sure. And my number 10 is about his number 5. Likewise, there are stories with severe pain scales and some with mild pain scales. A pain scale for a children’s picture book is very different from a pain scale for a horror story.

Pain Scale Determines Main Character

It’s also helpful to consider the pain scale when thinking about which character is the main character. In general, the character who hurts the most should be the main character. Ask each of your characters to rate their pain at key points throughout the story. Which one has the most pain? Could the story be stronger with a different main character? If there characters with no pain or only mild pain, could you either delete that character or find a way to add emotional pain?

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