Lois McMaster Bujold on "Doing the Worst Possible Thing to a Character"

[beatrice_otter]

I only seldom find author interviews interesting, but I'm glad I checked out Lois McMaster Bujold's latest interview on Smart Podcast, Trashy Books. (Transcript here.) It's a lovely conversation that I quite enjoyed. Two things, in particular, stood out to me. One was simple, when a marriage between two fans who met on Bujold's email list was mentioned:

The great advantage of writing comedies of manners is that you get fans who are into manners.
―Lois McMaster Bujold

which I thought was a great quote. The other thing was a bit deeper, when her famous dictum was brought up: "The rule for finding plots for character-centered novels, which is to ask: 'So what's the worst possible thing I can do to this guy?' And then do it." Here's what she said:

What I was trying to get at with that statement was something about how plot and character have to fit together. For a particular character, there’s a particular quintessential plot that explores that character most beautifully, completely, the way you want, you know. It shows you what you want to learn about him or her – or it, depending, ‘cause science fiction sometimes – rather than, you know, saying, what’s the worst thing I can do to this character, I think it might be better recast as, what is the most revealing thing I can do to this character?

 So it’s, it’s meant to be, you know, this, this is the scalpel by which we lay them open, you know. The plot is, plot is what you use to, you know, do exploratory surgery on a character. For every character, there will be a different, different most-revealing thing.

I wish GRRM and other grimdark authors would read this, and take note. Bujold didn't mean torture your characters for the sake of torture, she meant "if you figure out what issue goes to the core of who your character is, and put that in jeopardy, you will get a gripping story in which all the character's hidden facets are revealed." From a Doylist point of view, as you're constructing a plot, it helps to not just throw random bad things at them but to throw things at them that they will a) really care about and b) will help you explore them as a person.

Comments

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Written before reading the transcript

The specificity of character for any particular premise can distinguish two otherwise similar works. Kirby probably wasn't the one that said a war story that doesn't have death is just porn, but he did have a particular way of subverting the combat comic. I've had to variously figure out which route to take because some don't leave you with an intact character which isn't the same as an unchanging character.

[sulien]

That last paragraph, exactly! I have given up on buying new novels by authors with whom I am not familiar because of this trend of everything being so damnably grim!dark for no good purpose and often simply for the basest forms of titillation. That and the tendency to write variations on Twilight for novels with female protagonists. Just. NO.

Pardon the edit to change icons.

[beatrice_otter]

Exactly!