What's the worst thing you've ever done to a character?

Damian had his scalp carved up, his tongue removed, his nails torn out, his limps sewn together, his nose removed, most of his body seared by a hot iron rod, his ears cut off, his eyelids removed.

Being what he is, this only pissed him off.

edited 19th Dec '11 2:34:06 AM by Exelixi

To elaborate on an earlier comment I made, you get this.

There is a character who has dedicated her life to a cause. They got rich to pursue it better. They made major technological advances to further it. They became one of the most respected mercenaries in the world, and built their own team of mercs from the ground up, selection, training, custom outfitting every piece of equipment to make them the best they could possibly be, for this cause.

And it's not enough. And another character confronts them on this. The foreverwar was lost before it was begun. They don't have the resources to win straight, or the ruthlessness to win crooked. Even if they tried crooked, they'd simply be crushed once it was realized they were a serious threat.

The cause to which they have dedicated their life is hollow. They can't win. And to rub it in, the character who calls them out on it can. He's actually trying to convince her followers not to follow her down in flames, but it ends up being a fairly cutting conversation as a whole.

edited 19th Dec '11 3:51:03 AM by Night

To be honest, I agree with Disaster Grind here. This is basically a "I did more horrible things to my characters then you did" competition.

Part of the reason I haven't posted in the thread until now. The worst I've done to a character pales in comparison to some of this stuff. It would be like when Phill Jupitus had to follow The Who.

Same here, actually.

@melloncollie: The worst thing that you can do to a particular person need have no relation to physical violence, in my personal opinion. Take what happens to the main character in Harlan Ellison's "Pulling Hard Time".

Perhaps I should not have mentioned it at all. I have no interest in participating in some kind of weird territorial pissing contest, and my comment automatically makes it look as if I do, even if it is merely me stating my (debatably informed) opinion.

That assumes so very, very many things...

(And mind you, in the original comment, I said "most." "All" is not "most" and never has been.)

edited 19th Dec '11 6:00:11 PM by JHM

Put it better then I could have (except for the misuse of "effigy").

edited 19th Dec '11 6:43:45 PM by nrjxll

Ever stop to think that maybe the OP's writing functions in an "echo chamber" sort of way? That, just maybe, he or she looks at the actions of other writers in an attempt to plumb the depths of sadistic situations to put himself or herself in the proper mental state to do something awful to a character, likely as an important milestone in a plot (and/or any given part of a horror story, and/or the opening of an investigative thriller)?

That process actually happens to be exactly how I write horrendous scenes when necessary, though it tends to involve a group of people at a table rather than a thread on a forum.

Or, you know, maybe they're just curious.

Ah, also, more important than my personal argument is a little rule that says do not post in a thread just to claim you don't like it.

edited 19th Dec '11 7:27:28 PM by Exelixi

"Ever stop to think that maybe the OP's writing functions in an "echo chamber" sort of way? That, just maybe, he or she looks at the actions of other writers in an attempt to plumb the depths of sadistic situations to put himself or herself in the proper mental state to do something awful to a character, likely as an important milestone in a plot (and/or any given part of a horror story, and/or the opening of an investigative thriller)?"

Read this back to yourself and tell me how it doesn't prove my point. Misfortunes aren't a tool for you to slap on a character haphazardly; if that shit doesn't come organically, or isn't a product of the story and characters' natural 'flow', it's got no place in your story. If you have to look at what your buddies wrote so that you can write your milestone, then you're doing it wrong.

And your examples make no sense— a horror story's horror doesn't come from the gore and viscera, it comes from the fear of the unknown- the fear of an alien situation, and fear of what it might or could do to you, not what the writer explains to you in excruciating detail.

The opening death of an investigative thriller isn't about the gore either— it's about the clues, foreshadowing, and about who— or what— the murderer might be, or be willing to do. The unpleseant imagery that's described in the opening of an IT also is never interesting in and of itself— the interest gets targeted back to the murderer, and the fact that he's the 'crazy bastard who's willing to X'.

"Ah, also, more important than my personal argument is a little rule that says do not post in a thread just to claim you don't like it."

Yeah, pull that hugbox crap. I'm not posting here to tell you that I don't like the thread— I'm posting here to give you some advice. If you don't listen, that's on you. It's not my writing that's not going to go anywhere.

edited 19th Dec '11 8:01:28 PM by DisasterGrind

Define "organically."

I personally have been in a couple situations (quite literally a couple, two) wherein I knew something nasty needed to happen, who or what needed to do it, and who it needed to be done to, but not what, exactly, to have done.

Sweetie, I don't need your advice on how to write. I'm posting trivial details in a thread created for people to post such details in, for the convenience of the OP, and anyone else who wishes to read the thread, for whatever reason they choose to do so. My literary dick is plenty big enough without needing to win some invisible pissing contest.

Tvtropes needs a 'clap' emoticon.

Seconding Culex.

Inflicting misery on a character for the sake of inflicting misery is not a good thing. If you are inflicting that misery to drive forward the plot, or to make a point, that is better. But monstrosities without context are meaningless.

Disaster Grind, all of that was beautifully said. I am very proud of you. :)

Those posts shall ne'er be lost! I shall hang on to them tightly.

edited 19th Dec '11 8:46:54 PM by annebeeche

Grind has the right idea.

To anyone who thinks making your characters suffer will automatically make the story better: stop writing this instant and never, ever, EVER take up the pen again until you realize that Deus Angst Machina alone does not a good story make. I don't care how long it takes, wait for that goddamn epiphany.

edited 20th Dec '11 4:49:53 AM by Icarael