J is for Jinxed

A short and convoluted post, but I think it may have been jinxed because it was quite a bit longer and my phone or the interwebs ate it. I'm too tired and frazzled to completely recreate it. So I offer you the bullion cube version.

Sometimes I wonder if the poor main characters are jinxed. It seems that so many things happen to them. Sometimes over their whole lives, but especially during the story. I know that we want our readers to sympathise and identify with our characters and beating them up a little is a good way to summon that emotional bond. I just can't help but feel like I'm torturing these people and what's worse is I'm attached to them.

Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. -Ian Fleming

Of course there is someone plotting against them, it's me. Does that make me the enemy? I can't just off them or poke them with a giant pencil when I need the story to move forward. This isn't Monty Python. So I have to use the bad guys and coincidence.

Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.-Pixar's 22 Rules of Storytelling

We've all been there. People use the phrase, "When it rains, it pours," for a reason. So we pile it on and test out hero's mettle. What better way to prove to our readers that the characters are worth their love and attention than to have them dig themselves out of a huge pile of...uh problems?

What was the most difficult problem you heaped on a character? Do you ever look down at what you've created and feel sorry for one of your characters? Please leave a comment and don't forget to let me know where you came from so I can follow you back.