Some more of my recent process while writing a real story:
“Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them-in order that the reader may see what they are made of.” Vonnegut
I just wrote something that made my heart break. But I had to do it. Because without that moment, there is no story.
I won’t get into what I wrote, that will be seen one day in the book, but it was painful. Painful because I had to put my character through an awful experience. They say that a good story is made up of conflict. Your characters cannot grow and change unless they face obstacles and discover a way to overcome them. But what is conflict but terrible things that cause a person pain?
It’s sort of painful to see it happen. To have someone lose something, or to fail at something they really wanted to do. But without it the character cannot grow and, in some instances, they will not go through your story. So you gotta pull the trigger.
Something to remember, if you are writing a story. Don’t be nice to your characters. Make their journey painful. Make it worth their time.
They say this helps produce pathos in your readers, a reason to sympathize with your characters. Does it? Will this happen with my characters? I guess I’ll only know when people read it.