Writing Tip: The Most Needed Quote on Writing

“The writer is both a sadist and a masochist.”

Currently, I am teaching an undergraduate Introduction to Screenwriting class. It’s wonderful working with first and second year students who have an interest in the craft. Their final assignment: A short film script they have developed from concept through character work to a scene-by-scene outline.

One quote I look forward to sharing is from author Janet Finch:

“The writer is both a sadist and a masochist. We create people we love, then we torture them. The more we love them, and the more cleverly we torture them along the lines of their greatest vulnerability and fear, the better the story.”

This may be the most necessary lesson these young writers need to learn. As they work with their story’s characters, they will undoubtedly develop an affection for them, most significantly, the Protagonist. Yet, a writer must look beyond those feelings and be willing, indeed, embrace an instinct to put the characters through hell.

Why?

Because that is the path which leads to drama. Steer the plot so the Protagonist must confront “their greatest vulnerability and fear.” As screenwriter Robert Towne (Chinatown, Shampoo, Mission: Impossible) observes:

“The single most important question one must ask one’s self about a character is what are they really afraid of? That finally is where stories are told”

In fact, we must be prepared to “torture” our characters psychologically and yes, even sometimes physically. As screenwriter Jeffrey Boam (The Lost Boys, Lethal Weapon 2, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) noted:

“People go to movies because they have a deep-rooted need to see a heroic figure go through physical torture and come out victorious.”

Boam further says, “I try to bypass the brain and go right to the senses. I want emotional reaction, not intellectual engagement.” When we put a Protagonist through tough times, that is perhaps the easiest way to evoke an emotional connection on the part of the audience. Because if we feel affection for our characters, it’s likely the audience will, too. To experience characters we care about enduring one challenge after another is both emotionally upending and entertaining at the same time.

That’s one reason why this is such an important point: Putting our characters, especially the Protagonist, through one test after another creates good drama and, as a result, an entertaining story. There’s another reason: This is how we explore the Protagonist’s psychological development, or in Hollywood-speak their “arc.”

Here are some quotes from the founder of analytical psychology Carl Jung:

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but making the darkness conscious.”

“There’s no coming to consciousness without pain.”

“No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.”

If it is true in real life, that as individuals, we can only grow toward a state of psychological wholeness by confronting our “darkness,” by reaching “down to hell,” it holds true for our story’s characters as well. Force them to confront what Jung calls their shadow in order for them to understand and integrate it into their transformation process. In this way, the tests and challenges are not random, but tied specifically to what the character needs to face.

This willingness to “torture” a story’s characters is often the biggest single challenge young writers have. After all, most people practice kindness in their lives. As writers, we need to accept the fact that for the good of the story — and the Protagonist as well — that journey needs to go to some dark, even physically discomforting places. We need to embrace our role as literary sadist and masochist.

To learn more about Janet Finch, go here.