Friends and Enemies
Clearly defined
roles of characters aren’t as easy as it seems.
This is most prevalent when it
comes to the hero or the good guy. I can see the smoke from your wheels between
your ears turning on this one and you would correct in your thoughts. The bad
boy-girl, the anti-hero, and the vigilante is all basically bad people who do
bad things. Albeit, their actions have the desired effect, they are not who a
civilize society had chosen to combat the situation that plague their
particular world, existence, or the character themselves (the story). This is where the ends justifying the means is the
entire basis of the gray area in defining who is who and what side is
which. Just as detrimental is the good
guy and those who associate with them. There is little doubt in the beginning where the line is drawn, but when the second act begins, all bets are off. It isn’t until the third and final act do we actually see who are the friends and who are the enemies. What makes this additionally more interesting to the reader and the author is the truth that the best of all of us can also be seen as the worst in all of us. When enhancing your story, give a bit of thought to this simple idea. Comedy and tragedy are two sides of the same coin, but there are others that are just as profound. However, the fun comes in when you mix and match. Take for instance helpful and obstructive and change them to endangerment and helpful along with obstructive and catastrophe. This example shows how some positives and negatives can become positives and negatives when place against the opposites of themselves. As you can see sometimes being helpful can do more harm and sometime being obstructive can help avoid a catastrophe. This isn’t the best example and I’m sure you can think of many more. No matter little if you see the glass as half-emptied or half-filled as long as you see that there is a glass and something is in it. The important question that needs your thoughts are when to change, how to change, and why change your characters from friends to enemies.
When To Change
There is no perfect time in your story when changing your character from an upstanding citizen to a homicidal maniac is the right moment. Nor is there a perfect time for the villain to accomplish something that redeems him in the eyes of the people. What is important is the emotional impact this abrupt change does to the direction of your story. Just the thought of the reader having to change their thought process on every character who they had a strong opinion of them to the point of being set in stone will heighten the enjoyment and captivate them further into the story by having their walls of certainty come tumbling down. Basically it’s always fun to have a character or reader embarrassed when they find out that they were cheering for the wrong character all along. We aren’t talking about a who-done-it or some Sci-Fi physical change that is pretty hard to hide. We are talking about the moment in the story that all hell breaks loose, the person comes from out of the shadows, or when the shy introvert goes from meek and mild to in your face you poor naive bastard! So, when it comes to when to flip the script or the character’s character, timing is everything and how this change occurs.
There is no perfect time in your story when changing your character from an upstanding citizen to a homicidal maniac is the right moment. Nor is there a perfect time for the villain to accomplish something that redeems him in the eyes of the people. What is important is the emotional impact this abrupt change does to the direction of your story. Just the thought of the reader having to change their thought process on every character who they had a strong opinion of them to the point of being set in stone will heighten the enjoyment and captivate them further into the story by having their walls of certainty come tumbling down. Basically it’s always fun to have a character or reader embarrassed when they find out that they were cheering for the wrong character all along. We aren’t talking about a who-done-it or some Sci-Fi physical change that is pretty hard to hide. We are talking about the moment in the story that all hell breaks loose, the person comes from out of the shadows, or when the shy introvert goes from meek and mild to in your face you poor naive bastard! So, when it comes to when to flip the script or the character’s character, timing is everything and how this change occurs.
How To Change
Slow and steady always wins the race in the long run, but when you have to captivate your reader in the first forty pages, it may not be advisable to follow this rule. This doesn’t mean you have to show your complete hand early or even half of it. However, you should at least flip over that ace that always draw eyes to it and give just a little taste of what is coming. It is important to know when to change a character and change them again and again if that is what you want to do, but how you change them is just as important. Using some of the standard nice guy is being bullied is an acceptable starting point into the nice guy changes to defeat the bully. The use of a love interest is even more acceptable for a major change to take place. However, would you notice that the love interest might have a dark secret and may harbor anger management problems. She may even snap and the bully and all his friends get the crap beat out of them and yet all evidence points to the nice guy they picked on? Change is never written in stone, but change has to happen to propel the story forward. You never know. The reason why the guy allows himself to be bullied is because he had hurt someone when he was young who was picking on some little girl who used to follow him everywhere he would go. Because of his actions all the little girls liked him and she always wanted to prove that she liked him more. The boy who was picked on isn’t the hero who beats up the bullies of the school, but the catalyst for the nice girl’s actions. Or simply, he’s the cause and not the effect. Shock value can increase or diminish depending on how this major conversion takes place. The catalyst for change is always to answer the question why.
Slow and steady always wins the race in the long run, but when you have to captivate your reader in the first forty pages, it may not be advisable to follow this rule. This doesn’t mean you have to show your complete hand early or even half of it. However, you should at least flip over that ace that always draw eyes to it and give just a little taste of what is coming. It is important to know when to change a character and change them again and again if that is what you want to do, but how you change them is just as important. Using some of the standard nice guy is being bullied is an acceptable starting point into the nice guy changes to defeat the bully. The use of a love interest is even more acceptable for a major change to take place. However, would you notice that the love interest might have a dark secret and may harbor anger management problems. She may even snap and the bully and all his friends get the crap beat out of them and yet all evidence points to the nice guy they picked on? Change is never written in stone, but change has to happen to propel the story forward. You never know. The reason why the guy allows himself to be bullied is because he had hurt someone when he was young who was picking on some little girl who used to follow him everywhere he would go. Because of his actions all the little girls liked him and she always wanted to prove that she liked him more. The boy who was picked on isn’t the hero who beats up the bullies of the school, but the catalyst for the nice girl’s actions. Or simply, he’s the cause and not the effect. Shock value can increase or diminish depending on how this major conversion takes place. The catalyst for change is always to answer the question why.
Why Change
There are many reasons why characters change from good to bad or bad to better. However, no matter how you wish to choose the reason for your characters to change from one extreme to the next it will always be determined by either internal or external factors. There change can be brought about through unrequited, misplace, and denied affection. Change can also be a character’s coping mechanism for self-preservation, self-sacrifice, and addiction (or just wanting to blow crap up). Someone afraid of their own shadow, but put into a situation where they fight or die is a change. Someone who is selfish and decides to stay knowing they will die so others will live, is a change. Someone who is willing to place themselves solely as a friend in hopes for more, but is constantly tossed aside for someone new, is destined to change in a substantial way. What will happen when this friend is no longer available to the person who had taken them for granted and had abused their love for them will be one hell of a change (for both people)? There is always a reason for change and it is a character all of its own and should be very compelling. When the reason why a character change is minor than the character motives they use to justify their actions, then their actions will hold less importance in them being seen as someone who had changed at all. There is a way of giving more emphases, but overall it will just be putting a Band-Aid on a little boo boo. When the reason for the change is substantial, then there isn’t much you have to do but to enjoy the ride. Think of it this way. People don’t ride their surfboards during calm seas (unless they are beginners). They want something drastic to ride and so should your characters require being that someone no one had ever expected would change, but anyone can understand why they had changed. As I had pointed out that change can be a character of its own. No longer having what you had become accustomed to is a change everyone who had a relationship end abruptly or retired from a job would understand this meaning. Hopefully, the final change will come at the end of the story.
There are many reasons why characters change from good to bad or bad to better. However, no matter how you wish to choose the reason for your characters to change from one extreme to the next it will always be determined by either internal or external factors. There change can be brought about through unrequited, misplace, and denied affection. Change can also be a character’s coping mechanism for self-preservation, self-sacrifice, and addiction (or just wanting to blow crap up). Someone afraid of their own shadow, but put into a situation where they fight or die is a change. Someone who is selfish and decides to stay knowing they will die so others will live, is a change. Someone who is willing to place themselves solely as a friend in hopes for more, but is constantly tossed aside for someone new, is destined to change in a substantial way. What will happen when this friend is no longer available to the person who had taken them for granted and had abused their love for them will be one hell of a change (for both people)? There is always a reason for change and it is a character all of its own and should be very compelling. When the reason why a character change is minor than the character motives they use to justify their actions, then their actions will hold less importance in them being seen as someone who had changed at all. There is a way of giving more emphases, but overall it will just be putting a Band-Aid on a little boo boo. When the reason for the change is substantial, then there isn’t much you have to do but to enjoy the ride. Think of it this way. People don’t ride their surfboards during calm seas (unless they are beginners). They want something drastic to ride and so should your characters require being that someone no one had ever expected would change, but anyone can understand why they had changed. As I had pointed out that change can be a character of its own. No longer having what you had become accustomed to is a change everyone who had a relationship end abruptly or retired from a job would understand this meaning. Hopefully, the final change will come at the end of the story.
The one thing
that makes stories enjoyable is not knowing what is going to happen next and
drawing your own conclusions from what you have read to what you are about to
read. When those conclusions are drastically changed, then the real fun begins.
What is most important is to always start in black and white, change it to
gray, and end it with enough to have readers pick sides where neither side is willing
to give an inch. SD Tracy Harper
Illustration; occupyoakland.org
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