Train Wrecks
Someone in my writers' group last night commented that my poor heroine needed to get the ex-priest she's involved with "off the sauce." Because my character, Peter, is a train wreck of a human being. He's also, for me, fascinating.
Peter can help my heroine. He's astoundingly brave while also astoundingly weary. He can help her, but she is going to go along for this very, very bumpy, ugly alcohol-fueled ride before they will ever beat the bad guys.
And I was working on my new trilogy for Nocturne yesterday, too. It opens with yet another human train wreck. Mark is a recovering Vicodin addict. He's also a shrink who's about to get into a major mess of a thriller courtesy of a suicidal patient and his patient's train wreck of a sister. My main character Mark is finding, also, that grief and addiction are hopelessly entwined lovers, and being as he's grieving a dead daughter and a lost marriage . . . the Vicodin beckons.
I think, for me, I like characters who go through those dark nights of the soul. Because then there is a two-fold tension. Can they overcome the obstacles in the thriller aspects of the book? But even more, can they overcome their own tormented psyches to accomplish it? It ratchets up the suspense.
I've had plenty of train wrecks in my own life. I see them coming now and tend to run the other way. But at one point, I was fascinated by them. You watch that dance on the edge of the bottle of tequila or the pinpoint of a heroin needle and know each day teeters between wreckage and survival.
But now, I am content to watch the train wrecks in my novels. And I pull for them, I really do. I want them to survive. No picture-perfect heroes for me. I'd rather you spend the book wondering if, when the chips are down, Mark . . . or Peter . . . can hold their shit together.
How about you? Any train wrecks in your wip? Favorite train wreck in a novel, movie or TV show?
For me, aside from my wips, I love watching the nuances in the character of Cragan on Law & Order SVU (he's a recovering alcoholic as a character). In books, I love Andrew Vachss's Burke, whose life is an odd sort of train wreck. He's nearly always in control, and yet he's definitely down someplace so dark you just never know what he's going to do.
Your wrecks?
Peter can help my heroine. He's astoundingly brave while also astoundingly weary. He can help her, but she is going to go along for this very, very bumpy, ugly alcohol-fueled ride before they will ever beat the bad guys.
And I was working on my new trilogy for Nocturne yesterday, too. It opens with yet another human train wreck. Mark is a recovering Vicodin addict. He's also a shrink who's about to get into a major mess of a thriller courtesy of a suicidal patient and his patient's train wreck of a sister. My main character Mark is finding, also, that grief and addiction are hopelessly entwined lovers, and being as he's grieving a dead daughter and a lost marriage . . . the Vicodin beckons.
I think, for me, I like characters who go through those dark nights of the soul. Because then there is a two-fold tension. Can they overcome the obstacles in the thriller aspects of the book? But even more, can they overcome their own tormented psyches to accomplish it? It ratchets up the suspense.
I've had plenty of train wrecks in my own life. I see them coming now and tend to run the other way. But at one point, I was fascinated by them. You watch that dance on the edge of the bottle of tequila or the pinpoint of a heroin needle and know each day teeters between wreckage and survival.
But now, I am content to watch the train wrecks in my novels. And I pull for them, I really do. I want them to survive. No picture-perfect heroes for me. I'd rather you spend the book wondering if, when the chips are down, Mark . . . or Peter . . . can hold their shit together.
How about you? Any train wrecks in your wip? Favorite train wreck in a novel, movie or TV show?
For me, aside from my wips, I love watching the nuances in the character of Cragan on Law & Order SVU (he's a recovering alcoholic as a character). In books, I love Andrew Vachss's Burke, whose life is an odd sort of train wreck. He's nearly always in control, and yet he's definitely down someplace so dark you just never know what he's going to do.
Your wrecks?
posted by Erica Orloff at 10:35 AM
7 Comments:
I'm like you in that I save the train wrecks for my stories. I have a line in the book I just turned in where my character Nely knows that her best friend, Aggie will get involved in another bad relationship and there's nothing she can do but watch where the pieces land and then go back to put Aggie together again.
I've been in both positions: the friend who went down the dark path and the friend who had to watch the friend go down the dark path. It was sooo difficult in the writing to go back to those memories and the feelings associated with them. Kind of like method acting.
I've been a trainwreck. Not a druggie/drunk type, but a trainwreck all the same.
It makes it...harder, I think, because it means revisiting a time that I don't want to remember.
Mary:
Method acting--I use that analogy all the time when I try to explain the writing process.
E
may:
I hear you. I find writing about those kinds of characters can be cathartic, though.
E
I've known a lot of train wrecks in my day. I seem to attract them, for some reason. I'm like you, though, Erica. At this point in my life, I try to distance myself from dysfuntional people.
I would have to say that my Nicholas Colt is a train wreck of sorts. Or maybe "loveable loser" is a better way to describe him. The world doesn't understand him much, but he doesn't really give a crap about the world. He lives life on his own terms, and does what he feels is right.
Jude:
I don't think of Colt as a loser at all. To me, a loser is someone who . . . is passive. Accepts some kind of fate, accepts their lot, maybe even revels in it. Colt is much more of an active character. Just because he thumbs his nose at societal expectations of success doesn't make him a lose, in my opinion.
E
Thanks, Erica. Nicholas appreciates hearing that. :)
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