Abuse your protagonists
I just read the latest Harry Dresden, which brought to mind one of the most common pieces of advice authors are given. We’re told to “abuse your protagonists” and how it’s boring if you aren’t throwing them curve balls, and wrenching the carpet from under their feet. Which is certainly true; without conflict there isn’t much of a story. Our characters have to have goals and room to grow.
However, there comes a point when there’s too much abuse and you can destroy a reader’s sense of disbelief. In Small Favor Harry was nearly assassinated four or five times, and had three different ‘hit groups’ after him. In the majority of the book, Harry was fighting for his life and being thrown through walls, attacked by monsters, nearly drowned and attacked with swords. Exciting? Sure. However, I started to lose my sense of fear by the third or fourth time Harry was thrown bodily across a room (complete with soreness and broken bones). It’s important, I think, for our heroes to have the time to recover between spats of violence (and yes, even the time to suffer a little and to recover). Feeling pain, recovering from danger and illness are characteristics that allow us to identify with a character. And, it allows us to feel fear. In order to create suspense in a story, there has to be the real fear that a character may well be permanently injured, die or otherwise be harmed when the bullets start flying.
An author who does this very well (in fact, almost too well), is George R.R. Martin. His Song of Ice and Fire series is a sweeping medieval epic set in a very turbulent and war torn time period. Magical monsters are encroaching on the land, and men and women are swept up in battles for power and land. Martin spares no character, and when danger begins you’re turning page after page, wondering who will survive and who won’t. Now, I do describe it as a stressful read for that reason. You never know which belove character may die, and so the sense of peril is real.
I liked both books, but I think a truly enjoyable suspense story is somewhere in the middle. Danger interspersed with peaceful periods is important. Second, battles with real results and true recovery time is vital. Even if you know the main character won’t die, you can make sure to set the stakes high for what he may lose other than his life. Finally, sometimes your good guys should win completely, sometimes they should have a pyrrhic victory and sometimes, yes, they should even lose. This keeps it ‘real’, and keeps your reader wanting to know more.
