I enjoy writing, but I have never been able to write more than a few pages of a story. I really like writing characters, but I can never think of anything interesting for the characters to do.
I have heard more than a few authors say that to tell a compelling story you need to be an evil god and put your characters through hell. But I don't want my characters to go through hell. I like people and I wish good things for them. I don't want to invent bad things that will happen to my characters and then imagine how they are going to have to deal with them. And I think that is really making it hard for me to write stories.
Last night I wrote this page of a story.
Andy tightened the belts across his chest. He didn’t want to fall out of the hover pack again. He was lucky he had been above water before. He could have killed himself if he had landed on the beach.
“This is crazy.” said Bobby. “You could have killed yourself last time.”
“It was barely a 20 foot drop.” said Andy. “I might have broken a leg.”
“Unless you landed on your head .” said Bobby.
“Can you just get ready to record?” asked Andy pointing at the camcorder in Bobby’s hands.
“Just a second.” said Bobby shaking his head as he backed up to fit Andy in the camcorder view.
“Are you ready?” asked Andy.
“I’m ready.” said Bobby.
Andy walked to the edge of the roof of his two story beach house and looked out across the ocean. The water was sparkling and the sky was blue. It was a beautiful day to fly.
Andy held his arms out at his sides and took a step off the edge of the roof.
Bobby felt his stomach drop as he watched Andy hover in the air.
“The belts feel pretty secure.” said Andy as he twisted at his waist..
Bobby closed his eyes.
“You are crazy.” he said.
“Maybe.” said Andy with a big smile.
“Definitely.” said Bobby opening his eyes again.
Andy slowly moved his arms forward a little and began to float forward. He coasted out passed the beach to the ocean. He moved his arms back to his sides to hover in place again. He looked down at the waves crashing beneath him.
“Definitely a beautiful day to fly.” he said and then moved his hands forward together quickly and shot out across the water.
I do this a lot. I create a character or characters and write a moment between them, but then I get stuck. It really makes me sad, because I start to really like the characters I write, but since I can't think of what to have them do, I don't get to spend much time with them.
Does anyone else who likes to write feel that way too? If so, do you know of a way to write without putting your characters through hell? Or am I basically screwed as a writer if I won't be an evil god?
11:48 AM PT: Thanks so much for the advice, everyone!! I appreciate it so much! And I am taking all of it to heart. Thanks!
Oops, that was too many exclamation points in the span of only a few sentences. Sorry, Elmore Leonard. ;)
12:01 PM PT: Seriously, I wish I could ask all of you a million questions, but I will just say thank you again. Thank you all so much.