A Session in Character Therapy
By Daniel Stallings, East Sierra Branch
All writers have been there. That moment where you’re building up a big scene and suddenly your two characters stop communicating and won’t behave the way you thought they would. What do you do? To me, it’s like a session in character therapy with the author as the therapist.
“Dr. Stallings, your 3:30 appointment is here.”
And in they shuffle. The Protagonist is fuming, his climax interrupted by the sulking and sullen Antagonist, who doesn’t want to keep up this charade anymore. They sit on the sofa as far from each other as they can.
“So, Pro, Ant, what brings you both here?”
They glare at me. I’m the author. I should know.
Pro speaks first. Pro always has the first word. “It’s our big scene, and he screws it up! We’re supposed to fight, and he wants to sit down and talk! I don’t talk during a fight! I’m not designed that way!”
Ant’s eyes darken. “Oh sure! It’s all my fault! Everything’s my fault! I’m the villain! I get blamed for everything!”
“You’re the one who kidnapped my mother and threatened to…to…I don’t even know what you’re going to do, but it’s horrible!”
“You don’t know where I’m coming from, you big idiot! I didn’t even want to talk, but suddenly I had to! The desire ate at my soul! You never even considered my feelings!”
“What feelings?! You’re evil!”
“And you’re stupid!”
I cut in. “Calm down. Breathe. It’s a safe space here.”
Pro and Ant cross their arms like petulant children, throwing venomous glares at each other.
I admit I hadn’t considered this. The fact Pro’s inherent righteousness and quick-thinking would border on close-mindedness or that Ant’s cold apathy and misanthropy mutated into insufferable loneliness. hey were designed to be mortal enemies, true opposites. But somewhere within me must have been the desire to connect them, hence Ant’s sudden, unexpected need to talk with the individual he loathed.
They wanted to understand each other. I wanted them to understand.
I speak slowly, shaping the words carefully. “Pro…Isn’t it better to understand how your enemy moves and thinks? Don’t you want to comprehend how his mind works?”
Pro bites his lip, eyes unsure for the first time.
“And Ant…You have this need to express yourself in a way alien to you. You don’t like to connect with others, but now you must to ease the loneliness.”
Ant withdraws into his shoulders.
“Because you both aren’t true opposites. In fact, I think Ant might start seeing himself in you, Pro.”
Pro, Ant, and even myself look shocked. Breakthrough. It’s in the air, a ripple of excitement. We know the scene is going to progress. Pro and Ant will talk…and learn.
So if you find yourself struggling with characters who won’t play together the way you planned they would, perhaps they have evolved beyond your original intentions. Understand them as people, and you’ll know where to take the story.
Session complete.
East Sierra’s president Daniel Stallings
first wrote this for his column in Writers of the Purple Sage,
the branch newsletter.