T: Terrible

Are writers terrible people? Perhaps. You can’t be easy on your characters and create awesome stories.

A good story isn’t one about nice things that happen to nice people. It’s about taking a character and putting them in the worst possible scenario. If your character’s worst day doesn’t happen at some point in the book, then maybe you’ve written the wrong story for that character.

So after you put your character in hot water, then what?

Make it worse.

Remember when it comes to characters, writers are terrible people.

If you ever think that you’ll make it easier on the characters, don’t. Keep the tension by increasing the problems and not taking the easy way out.

So remember be terrible and be a great writer.

Ps. Another reason writers are terrible people:

Two am, you’re reading a book, feeling so exhausted that your eyes barely stay open. You’re certain you’ll be a zombie when you have to wake up the next day. You plan to put the book down when you finish the chapter. Then something big happens to the character, leaving you scrabbling for the next page. All the way to the end at four am.

Writers do this on purpose! Ghastly, I know.

Happy writing!