Michael, so wonderful to have you chime in given your background! I’m sure you can see loads of connections between your profession and the way we present our stories. Thank you so much for popping by!

Dedra, it’s really a tough thing to hit just right, isn’t it? Is your story in first-person? That’s oftentimes a bit of a gateway to self-pity, or at least, I find it makes it easier for clients (and me) to veer toward it. Another red flag is interiority where a character is envying what another character has, placing blame on someone else, or remarking that they should have made another choice, or somewhat bemoaning their situation. Think: victim mentality, even if they’re a victim of their own choices. If you haven’t already, you might check out Angela and Becca’s book THE EMOTIONAL WOUND THESAURUS. One of the entries is “Accidentally killing someone,” and you could even explore “Bearing the responsibility for many deaths,” “Failing to save someone’s life,” “Making a very public mistake,” and “Poor judgement leading to unintended consequences.” Honestly, there are probably other entries in this book that could help. What I love about this resource is it helps you consider how guilt and shame and emotions tied to things like your character’s situation play out on the page through what they *do* and say. You can use the ideas from each entry to spark believable behaviors that signal the emotions that would naturally rise from his backstory, and the reader will pick up on the root of the behaviors. I recommend this book to every single client I work with. It’s useful for protagonists and secondary characters, and it’s useful for every single story we craft. Best of luck!

Angela, I’ve been trying to exude maybe even 5% of your brain power for over a decade now, lol! You guys are brilliant! Yes, such a keyword: pressure. It’s often the case that many client manuscripts aren’t applying pressure. We always hear the old “throw rocks at your character” advice, but it’s really more fitting to think of it in terms of pressure. You want to make them so uncomfortable that they’re forced to move and find new pathways. Love that word! Sincere thanks for giving me the opportunity to stop by today!

Becca, ha! You guys–thanks to your amazing resources!–have made me really open up my mind in terms of occupations and the way they pertain to story. There’s a great TED TALK by Andrew Stanton called “Clues to a Great Story,” and I think he hits the nail on the head. He doesn’t use the lawyer analogy, but the takeaways are quite similar. We have to make the reader (our jury) think they’re drawing their own conclusions, but we ensure we get them to reach the outcome we want based on how we slyly make our case. As always, it’s such a joy to be on your blog! Thank you!

Mindy, self-pity is so hard to avoid, isn’t it? I find that when I’m writing, I fight the urge to make sure my reader sees my character’s situation as one that deserves empathy. When we cross the line and insert ourselves too much into the story as the storyteller, that’s always when the pity starts to show. Self-pity is one of those things I have to ask for a critique partner to spot because it’s difficult to pin down when I veer toward it. I love that when you honed in on instances of it yourself, you saw the improvements! Thanks for having me on today!

I especially love testing our characters so they can prove that they’ve changed. And great warning not to let them sink into self-pity. I did that in one of my early MGs and saw how unlikeable it made my character. Taking those parts out and showing her inner strength growing throughout the story made a huge difference.