Torturing Your Character

[Asbel]

Happy endings are wonderful. It's great to see the princess get her prince and ride off into the sunset.

You know what's even more fun to read? A story where the princess gets her leg cut off trying to rescue herself before the prince even comes into the picture, and loses the other trying to save HIM.

Physical torment aside, torturing characters emotionally and mentally is really taxing on the author. Renowned Harry Potter author JK Rowling states that after writing her character Sirius Black's death, her husband found her sobbing. For many of us, our characters are our children. We want to see them succeed, but at the same time, we understand that they have to go through hardship. It just makes it a little harder when we have to dole out that hardship ourselves.

Here we discuss how to torture your character. We'll bring up characters and the situations we put them in, and get advice for bringing hardship into their story, whether it's physical, emotional, mental or a combination thereof.

 

[sr71plt]

I think getting your leg cut off is more than a bit beyond the concept of torture (or erotica). I include my protagonists in challenging physical assault situations from time to time, but lopping off limbs jumps the shark of erotica as far as I'm concerned. I don't have this burning desire and latent anger and hatred (I think) to do that to characters in my erotica.

 

[lovecraft68]

IN my SWB series I spent a year and a half putting the twisted siblings through hell and back in a variety of ways.

Many times I knew what was coming, but still struggled through it. I was writing it with the same "Oh, no!" feeling I hoped the readers would feel.

I did a scene where the brother has a psychotic break that had me depressed for a week, then the sisters last days as a drug addict(finishing with a failed suicide attempt) had tears in my eyes as I typed it because earlier in life I'd lost several family members to drugs.

IN a dream sequence near the end I killed them. He died of a gunshot wound(that part really happened, the shooting) and then I did his funeral and eulogy from the sister POV and had her commit suicide by taking a bottle of pills on his grave. I knew it was not real yet, it tore me up to write it and when I read the first draft to my wife she was sobbing.

These people, especially in a long work do become our babies, our friends, we eat, sleep and breath them.

The worst experience was when I wrote a short, but brutal scene where the brother, driven into a feral rage by his coked out sister, rapes her. I have strong feelings against non consent in general and loathed doing it, but the story wanted it.

When I was done, I went into the bathroom and threw up. When I got the entire 15k section back from the editor I never checked the changes to those paragraphs, I to this day have never reread it nor will I.

Its not an exaggeration to say writing can take its toll on an author and it can have that affect on a reader as well if they've become vested enough.

Unfortunately HEA rules here so if you torture your leads too much, you may not get great responses, but don't let that deter you from doing what you want.

 

[lovecraft68]

Another point is that its a fine line between believable 'torture' and over the top, okay this is ridiculous.

I gave up on Game of thrones for that reason. It got to the point it became over the top shock value and he was just shredding these characters to show how 'brutal' they all could be. IT became something to endure not watch and I gave up and that was way before the infamous sansa ramsy scene and Lannisters shame walk.

Martin has proved to be a disgusting misogynist incapable of writing a female character without having them beaten or raped. In fairness he has don his fair share of horror to male characters as well, but his loathing of women is undeniable.

Now that's my opinion, but it was formed by incessant abuse and torture to a degree it was becoming something more akin to a low budget schlock exploitation type of film in series form.

 

[Asbel]

I think getting your leg cut off is more than a bit beyond the concept of torture (or erotica). I include my protagonists in challenging physical assault situations from time to time, but lopping off limbs jumps the shark of erotica as far as I'm concerned. I don't have this burning desire and latent anger and hatred (I think) to do that to characters in my erotica.

You get the point of it, though. I'm not personally suggesting that amputation makes for good trial, or even good sex. Was just sort of... The first thing that came to mind.

I'm not really sure what that says about me.

 

[lovecraft68]

You get the point of it, though. I'm not personally suggesting that amputation makes for good trial, or even good sex. Was just sort of... The first thing that came to mind.

I'm not really sure what that says about me.

It was an example, some people take things to literally.

 

[Asbel]

I gave up on Game of thrones for that reason.

I agree with this, although it was also partly because of Khal Drogo's death. He was sort of the only reason I started reading. No shame there.

 

[sr71plt]

This is a writers' site. I'm amused when posters (and others) object to what they post being taken as what they posted.

 

[lovecraft68]

This is a writers' site. I'm amused when posters (and others) object to what they post being taken as what they posted.

Happy New year!

 

[Asbel]

This is a writers' site. I'm amused when posters (and others) object to what they post being taken as what they posted.

Extrapolation and figurative speech are also writing tools. You think when I write things like "his heart was beating out of his chest" that his aortal muscle just pops out of his ribs and lands on the floor like nothing?

 

[lovecraft68]

Extrapolation and figurative speech are also writing tools. You think when I write things like "his heart was beating out of his chest" that his aortal muscle just pops out of his ribs and lands on the floor like nothing?

Hmm good thread idea....we can visualize things like "His head was spinning" "My mind was racing" He was breathing like a bull, she was riding me like a bucking bronco...

 

[Asbel]

Anyway.

I torment my characters pretty horribly, but for some reason, I very rarely feel bad about it. I cringe a little bit when I'm rereading it, but I know that it has to happen.

In the second chapter of my story Hematoma, the main character decides to go out clubbing so he can forget how bad he feels about his masochism fetish. He meets some dude, they get drunk, they go home, they fuck, and at some point, the MC's masochistic tendencies break out. His new fuckbuddy freaks out, calls the MC a bunch of names, and suggests quite bluntly that he seek psychiatric help. After the guy's gone, the MC just breaks down and cries.

Why, MC? Why can't you be a normal dude like everyone else? You sweet, tortured soul.

I may be suffering from Martin's torture fetish myself. But at least my MC will have some semblance of a happy ending... Or something... Right?

 

[Handley_Page]

One of my characters has been stabbed (quite painfully) and is spending some time in hospital.

 

[redzinger]

I often have a little cry after or during the writing of an emotional scene. I'm hoping I manage to impart some of the emotion that I feel, but most of the time I don't know.

For me, it takes a certain frame of mind to be able to write that kind of scene in the first place.

 

[Hypoxia]

I feel pain and sorrow after knocking off sympathetic characters, even those whose only place in the story is their closeness to active players. Terminating a bad guy is much less traumatic. Killing off a planetary population is almost a yawn.

I haven't yet tortured my players, just involved them in car wrecks etc. For mutilation without pain, see my Like a Hole in the Head about a brain-damage fetish. Approval was tough; Laurel doesn't see mutilation as erotic.

I've an idea for a tale of a *serious* masochist who lops-off his excess phalanges (fingers & toes) and other body parts for the orgasmic rush. Probably does a lot of self-scarification, too. I do not think I would actually write that one, even as Erotic Horror. And amputations and similar mayhem of another's body are totally off LIT's radar, right?

 

[sr71plt]

Extrapolation and figurative speech are also writing tools. You think when I write things like "his heart was beating out of his chest" that his aortal muscle just pops out of his ribs and lands on the floor like nothing?

Apples and oranges. And folks here do write stories about lopping off people's arms and legs. It's hardly worth your and LC's attempts to wriggle away from it.

And riding someone like a buckaroo is hardly hyperbole. I've written about it and I've done it.

 

[lovecraft68]

Apples and oranges. And folks here do write stories about lopping off people's arms and legs. It's hardly worth your and LC's attempts to wriggle away from it.

And riding someone like a buckaroo is hardly hyperbole. I've written about it and I've done it.

But if you really rode them like a bucking bronco it couldn't have lasted more than eight seconds

 

[Athalia]

I've written two stories concerning torture. One of them is on this site (The Path of Pain), and the protagonist is torturing herself. In the other story, a woman is tortured to death for the amusement of some sadistic SS guards.

The first story was an extension of a self-torture session I once had, carried to extremes far beyond what I actually experienced.

The other one? I'm not sure at all where that came from. In the story, the torturer, the tortured, and the horrified witness are all female. One controls the situation completely, one has absolutely no control, and one is simply trying to process the experience and ultimately heal from its effects. They represent, I think, three sides of me, and in a way, that's a form of self-torture, too.

I have no urge to write more stories like this. Part of me thinks I went too far in writing them in the first place.

 

[sr71plt]

But if you really rode them like a bucking bronco it couldn't have lasted more than eight seconds

Depends on how long the bronc wanted to buck. But I could always count on you standing there, timing my every move.

 

[Ewobbit]

Before I started to school, my parents left me with an older couple while they went to work. He had lost his left leg almost to the hip. But, he was a carpenter and routinely did roofing work, climbing a ladder with a bucket of shingles in one hand.

When I started to school, I had one classmate that was born without any arms or legs and another who was an albino and all but blind being able to read only with his nose literally touching the book. Teachers tended to frown on excuses from the rest of us when those two were accomplishing every task set.

Shit happens.

How we deal with it, how we overcome the challenges dealt to each, are the mark of who we are.

The guy without arms and legs could have been a doorstop and I doubt anyone would have blamed him. But, he went on to become an accomplished trumpet player, break dancer (look up the 80s if you didn't live through it), and a pretty kick ass basketball player among other accomplishments.

The blind albino went on to become an astute statistician and flautist and studied at Juilliard.

As a reader, I tend to gravitate towards stories that handicap the protagonist in some way. Probably to date my favorite example would have to be Lois McMasters Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan in the series chronicling his exploits. If you think about it, who doesn't expect Superman and Wonder Woman to overcome all odds?

As a writer, I don't shirk from robbing a perfectly healthy young man or woman of their health, though I may cringe a bit in extreme examples. But, I tend to hold out hope that the sharpest steel requires the hottest fire and the most hammering in it's forging. So long as life remains, so too does hope that the character will show their metal. (And loss of life doesn't necessarily stop them in my Sci-fi/Horror maunderings.)

No. What makes me cringe is when I meet that child born from the womb of my mind that can not seem to triumph over any but the most trivial of tribulations.

 

[sr71plt]

I don't really see what disability has to do with purposeful torture to the point of lopping off limbs.

 

[Hypoxia]

Before I started to school, my parents left me with an older couple while they went to work.

But the older couple likely did not torture or mutilate you, nor you them, so what's the story?

I recall an old Spain Rodriguez comix piece set in 1950's Buffalo NY. An older man regularly solicits sex from tough young studs in park restrooms. He offers money, then refuses to pay afterwards. The enraged guys thoroughly kick his ass -- which the old masochist loves. Sort of like chocolate Ex-Lax, a treat at both ends.

So, I can visualize happy-torture tales of extreme masochists.

* The masochist enlists a friend for torture (not mayhem) because each spike of pain is orgasmic. Jab hot needles into his hand and watch him spurt.

* The masochist tricks a rival into torturing him. (The setup precludes mayhem.) Rival is frustrated when victim doesn't break. Depravity ensues.

* Extreme case: the masochist contrives to have his extremities cut away, again spurting orgasmically with every chop and slice. Would Laurel approve?

But I have a problem with all those -- they sicken me. So I won't write'em.

 

[Ewobbit]

I don't really see what disability has to do with purposeful torture to the point of lopping off limbs.

Thanks for the feedback.

~snip ~

We'll bring up characters and the situations we put them in, and get advice for bringing hardship into their story, whether it's physical, emotional, mental or a combination thereof.

I went beyond the literal "torture" to a broader scope of imagining the conflicts we place them in, although I do have a marked tendency to disfigure protagonists in everything from car wrecks to shotgun wounds to bomb blasts to one poor unfortunate who experienced an acid burn, describe the wounding and the aftermath in agonizing detail, and go on to try to guide them in overcoming the experience.

Apparently one of us misunderstood. I bow to the wisdom of your lengthy experience, claim fault, and beg pardon.

 

[SecondCircle]

Okay. So, is it a stretch to think when the OP referenced "torture" it was to be somewhat metaphorical, and the examples given to be an exaggeration thereof?

That's kinda what I surmised but I'm hesitant given the responses.

 

[Asbel]

I think he's just here to take everything way too seriously.