I'm having a hard time with this. I want to do what the story requires, but I can't tell if I like a character too much to make him do something terrible that would serve the plot.
I find it an interesting and very ethical dilemma, in the sense that we should strive for honesty but that there may be things that keep us from it --in many cases, gratuitous elements, or in this case, misplaced attachment, perhaps? If I spare my character something the story requires simply because I'm too attached to him, am I being dishonest?
OR: is this a good way to gauge what an audience might feel, and should the writer then adjust the narrative to at least provide... I don't know, not redemption necessarily, since there is such a thing as poetic justice after all and the notion that there are certain lines that cannot be crossed in fiction without consequences, but something.
I hate to say this, but when your character is beautiful and witty and charming, it's a lot harder to get him to do horrible things on the page than if we wasn't.
Thoughts?
I find it an interesting and very ethical dilemma, in the sense that we should strive for honesty but that there may be things that keep us from it --in many cases, gratuitous elements, or in this case, misplaced attachment, perhaps? If I spare my character something the story requires simply because I'm too attached to him, am I being dishonest?
OR: is this a good way to gauge what an audience might feel, and should the writer then adjust the narrative to at least provide... I don't know, not redemption necessarily, since there is such a thing as poetic justice after all and the notion that there are certain lines that cannot be crossed in fiction without consequences, but something.
I hate to say this, but when your character is beautiful and witty and charming, it's a lot harder to get him to do horrible things on the page than if we wasn't.
Thoughts?
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