by Jeanne Takenaka, @JeanneTakenaka
The idea of creating characters was the one thing that kept me from jumping into fiction writing for, well, decades.
One of the first writing lessons I heard was, “You have to kill your darlings?” As I came to understand the necessity of tension to make a story good, I used to think, “Of course, we do! That’s what makes a story good!”
But, as I’m creating characters for my next story, I’ve realized, I don’t like causing pain to people, real or fictional.
A child character in my story needs a problem. As I researched possibilities, I kept thinking, “No, she can’t have that. How painful would that be for her, and how would that dilemma ever get fixed?”
But the beauty of being an author is that, the character—child or adult—doesn’t have to live with the difficulty they begin their story with. We have the opportunity to write redemption into their lives. And, we get to decide the redemption process and how our characters will change and grow.
Is a story stronger when we “kill (or maybe for us romance writers “hurt”) our darlings?” Definitely.
Why we don’t want hurt our darlings:
So, why is it hard for us to put our characters into seemingly impossible situations? For me, I take the pains personally. I have a hard time imagining how to walk through the pain and to come out on the other side.
And when I’m creating characters and plotting a story, I tend to want full control over it. I know, the best stories are organic and have a blend of author molding and character-inspired direction. If I control every aspect of my story, my characters will be stifled in their growth.
Trusting God to direct my plot and what happens to my characters may sound trivial. But, when we’re afraid to put our characters through something that’s way bigger than them—and perhaps than us—God can surprise us with the directions our story can take.
Why we must allow our characters to suffer:
God knows our readers. He knows when our story will be published and who’s going to buy our books. When we put our characters in bigger-than-them circumstances—situations we may not know how to write our way out of—God can work.
I’ve found, that when I put my characters in, what is to me, an unthinkably painful circumstance, God often surprises me with how He resolves the problem. And when we let God direct our words, He often orchestrates unexpected plot twists. How many of us have heard from a reader, “I didn’t expect ______, but what the character learned/went through was my favorite part of the story!”
When we create characters who are authentic and struggle with honest problems, their stories resonate in readers’ hearts. And isn’t that what we want.
Our stories are never completely about our readers. Susan May Warren says if we aren’t changed in the process of writing, then we’ve missed the whole point. God wants to change and deepen us, even as we desire to create characters who are redeemed through struggles.
Even as we go about creating characters and redemption in their stories, God creates and writes redemption into our stories. He knows the real-life and writing-life obstacles we will face. But, He has no intention of leaving us to flounder and to be mired in the difficulty forever. God knows the redemption He wants to pen in our personal stories.
The question is, will we fight him or will we lean into Him?
Award-winning, aspiring novelist and blogger Jeanne Takenaka writes contemporary fiction that highlights how faith and grace hold hands in relationships with people and with God. She, her husband, and two boy-men call Colorado home. She loves being a God-seeker, hanging out with friends, and savoring oat milk lattés. When she’s not writing, you can find her, camera in hand, searching for #alittlebitofpretty. She’s a member of ACFW and Novel Academy.