I was at a local amusement park with my children last weekend and was put in an uncomfortable situation a couple of times in a row.
We were in the water park when a family took it upon themselves to have a humongous, awful argument about five feet away from me. They were calling each other names (the children as well as the adults), being passive aggressive, being openly aggressive, and being overall very loud. The dad was a bully, the mom was shrill, the teenage son was accusatory. I tried to escape.
Shortly after that, a large lady in an inner tube floated up to me in the shallow area and stayed right there next to me, less than a foot away. I’ll admit to having some personal space issues, but I think even someone who doesn’t would think that was a little close when the rest of the shallow area had no one in it at all. (The arguing family had moved on to another section of the pool.)
It all made me think about creating discomfort in our books.
Putting our characters in uncomfortable situations can be a way to create humor. It’s fun to put a character in an uncomfortable situation and see what happens. My character, Myrtle, gave a disastrous dinner party and she was so serious about trying to make everything perfect. When it all backfired on her, it made the scene funny.
By making our protagonist feel uncomfortable, we can pull our reader into the tension that she’s feeling. This will evoke sympathy for our character.
This discomfort can be used as a way to keep readers turning pages….readers want our friendly protagonist to get out of the situation she’s in.
Lend a sense of realism to a scene. We’ve all been in situations where we feel uncomfortable. Readers can relate to it.
Do you like making your characters uncomfortable? How have you done it in the past?
Elizabeth – We all face uncomfortable situations. When our characters do, too, that can make the story that much more realistic. I do sometimes include those awkward situations when they fall out naturally from the story, and one of the things that comes out of it is that one can show, not tell, the reader what the character’s personality is like. How does that character react to the awkwardness?
I’ve never considered myself to be good at planned humour. I can come up with some really witty things on the spot while talking with friends, but that’s about it. I should work on that.
Uncomfortable situations definitely help to make the reader sympathetic to the character in question. But I’d be worried about going too far and exhausting the reader with one embarrassing situation after another.
Great advice! I think I’m going to have to go through my ms & see what I can add. :)
I hate when people get so close to my personal space too!
Funny you mention that, because placing my character in an uncomfortable position is practically the theme of my next book! He just wants his privacy and yet everything that happens is an invasion of that privacy.
I think those uncomfortable times help create that page to page tension and can offer humor that everyone can relate to.
Oh yes. I’m reading a book, An Audience of Chairs by Joan Clark, and the protagonist goes mad. On the way to a full-blown break-down, she leaves her young children on an island while she goes home to get something. She gets caught up and forgets them. They are found and safe but it ruins her life and the whole time I’m reading it, I’m out of MY mind. I must have been such a goody goody when I was a kid – if I’m reading something where someone is doing something they shouldn’t – I get very anxious. It’s ridiculous. Ah well. In my books I do put folks in uncomfortable positions – I think I need to work on my protagonist being more varied in her response to them however. Thanks for the post!
I think it’s ALL about creating those uncomfortable situations. They don’t have to be epic, or last long, but as we’re taught, “Only Trouble is Interesting.”
Terry
Terry’s Place
Romance with a Twist–of Mystery
I sympathize with you for having to endure the arguing family and then the personal space invader. People who choose to argue in public embarrass me, and I have a very large bubble of personal space!
It´s funny, but people invading your personal space is indeed unpleasant.
Good writing tip!
Ooo, yes discomfort can create some terrific tension and even hilarious moments. Happy to do it in my writing, not so thrilled about it in real life sometimes haha!
This reminds me of a kid’s movie I recently watched, Angels in the Outfield (the early ’90s remake). The Angels are terrible so no fans go to the games and the kids get awesome seats. Even though there are hundreds of empty seats some guy sits right down next to them. So when the Angel comes to talk to Roger, it makes it uncomfortable because the guy (who can’t see the angel) thinks Roger is kind of crazy. It’s funny!
This is a great idea. Usually I focus on larger plot elements but I can see how this could work in the quieter moments and really underscore the tension overall. Thanks!
I’ll admit – I get uncomfortable myself, reading or writing about characters in uncomfortable situations! Probably because I’m the type of person who ALWAYS finds herself in uncomfortable situations in real life, and most of them of my own making (my foot is usually planted firmly in my mouth, at all times), and so reading or writing about it hits a little too close to home for me. It is something that does help me empathize more with the protagonist, though!
This is a great idea. I never thought about it as a way to create humor but now that you mention it, it really could!
I have definitely done this before! Here’s the moment that inspired it….
My brother works for a restaurant’s corporate office and my family went out to dinner at one of their restaurants. My brother wanted to use the discount, but when the manage came over he made such an awkward situation about it! Like we were stealing!
So…
Later, while I didn’t recreate the scene, I took that manager and made him into a character that would end up putting one of my character’s into a VERY awkward, almost painful moment!
While I don’t LIKE putting my characters in awkward spots, I do think it’s necessary to use those moments to show their humanity!
Paul–I think our poor readers need a break from almost every type of element in a book. So if it’s horror, they need a break from the horrific, if it’s total camp, they need a little break with some pathos. Everything can so easily be overdone in a book…
Alex–And I just love that kind of stuff. Great internal conflict!
Laura–Because we’ve all been there!
Margot–If they’re like me, they’re watching in horror and trying to get away.:)
Jan–Good point! Especially if it’s a protagonist who is screwing up massively…that can definitely create some tension.
Jemi–Not sure why I’m so bad about it! I’ll just start backing away…
Laura–Seems to happen a lot in real life, doesn’t it? Ha!
Great example! So even a small thing like that can create some humor and conflict, too!
Bluestocking—It can add a little extra tension, I think. And it’s easy.
E Louise Bates–I do that, too! I think I’ve got foot-in-mouth disease. I’m trying to get better as I get older…not sure it’s working, though. I can understand why you’d avoid it. :)
Terry–It keeps us reading, I think.
Heather–I do terrible things to my characters for the sake of humor. :)
Elspeth–Me too. And as people get closer to me, my personal space bubble gets bigger! It would be very easy to back me into a ditch or something. Poor Elizabeth. So many issues… :)
Nicole–That’s nuts for a manager to do that! I worked for a while in customer service in a bank and we were told that the customer was always right. Good thing you could use the material for a story!
It’s a great way to add a little realism in the book, isn’t it?
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I usually placed people outside of my character’s normal social circles in his or her path. A few times I dropped a bomb and threw the character in a direction they did not want to go.