Do your characters undergo some significant life changes?

Summary

The web content discusses the importance of exploring significant life changes in characters to explain their bad behavior, using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) as a reference for psychological disorders and the Stress Scale - Life Change Value to quantify stressful events that can trigger such behavior.

Abstract

The article emphasizes the fascination writers and readers have with characters who undergo profound life changes, often manifesting in "bad behavior." It suggests that understanding the underlying psychological issues and stressors is crucial for creating believable and relatable antagonists. The piece references the DSM-IV as a tool for researching psychological disorders and presents a list of stressful life events, such as the death of a spouse or divorce, ranked by their potential impact on an individual's well-being. These events are seen as catalysts for character development and can serve as a strong foundation for storytelling, allowing readers to empathize with the characters' struggles and motivations.

Opinions

Writers enjoy crafting antagonists with complex, dark sides, and readers find therapeutic value in exploring these characters' lives and challenges.
It is essential to research and understand psychological disorders to create characters with plausible motivations for their extreme actions.
Life-changing stress and crises are compelling starting points for stories, as they immediately engage readers' empathy and provide a framework for character development.
The Stress Scale - Life Change Value is a useful guide for quantifying the impact of various life events on a character, which can inform their behavior and reactions within the narrative.
The article suggests that by relating to a character's pain and life issues, readers are more likely to become invested in the story.

Do your characters undergo some significant life changes?

Here are 10 Reasons for Your Character’s Bad Behavior

One of a writer’s favorite things as an author is to create antagonists and to explore their dark side. It’s very helpful to understand the plausible causes for strange behaviors, extreme and irrational actions. As a reader, it helps us identify with the character and their life issues.

As readers, we love to read about the troubles characters go through. It makes us feel better about our own lives and the issues we face. We like to read about the obsessed, deviants, and depraved. It’s therapeutic. We deal with our dark side by learning about their lives — how they walk, talk, eat, play, manipulate, and work.

We need to research a character who has a psychological problem and understand the disorder. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV ) is an excellent reference for psychological disorders.

10 Good Reasons for Your Character’s Bad Behavior

Very often, abnormal behavior is triggered by life-changing stress and crisis. It’s a great way to begin a book. You catch the reader’s empathy right away. We all have life issues, and identifying with your character is a great way to hook your reader. This is an excellent way to start a book. If we put our characters in one of these situations, we have a story. It gives us something to build on. We understand motivations when we relate to this pain.

Think about these life changes and see if they fit with your character and how you can incorporate it into their profile.