There’s two main schools of thought when it comes to what drives a story. The philosopher Aristotle believed that plot came first, determining the narrative’s path. American playwright Arthur Miller claimed characters laid the foundation, since a character’s choices can change the story’s trajectory. Writing tragedy from a plot can be a little self-explanatory: something catastrophic happens, then bad things follow. With character, typically the protagonist or antagonist longs for something to the point of destruction. Obstacles, of course, complicate things and push the character even further down their tragic path, but at the heart of it all is this desire to achieve a goal. You can think of these desires and character traits as a “fatal flaw” that inevitably leads to a downfall. Here’s some character traits and desires that can push a character to tragedy. LOVE The classic, the O.G., the heart of Romeo & Juliet. For those of you who love a good romance, this might be the option for you. Love can be taken in a couple different directions. Maybe the protagonist cannot ever be with their loved one. Or their loved one dies, and they must find a way to deal with the loss. Or maybe they love their significant other so much, they would sacrifice themself to protect them. Lots of potential here. On the flip side, what about hatred? Hatred can blossom out of love, especially if someone comes in between the lovers – or even if the lovers betray one another. Perhaps the protagonist loathes a character so much, they go out of their way to make their enemy’s life miserable. There’s a possible corruption arc and self-destructive narrative lying in hatred. LOYALTY Similar to love, loyalty lies in devotion to something other than a person. A more tragic word than “loyalty” might be “zealtry”. A character might be overzealously devoted to a country, a religion, an ideal, or even just a symbol. And if a character is whole-heartedly committed to one of these things, what lengths will they go to in order to preserve them? The protagonist might be striving to protect the object of their loyalty. But maybe they’re taking it a step further and trying to spread it. The overlying question you should be asking yourself is “how far would they go?” REVENGE Another classic, revenge lies at the center of William Shakespeare’s Othello and many other stories. It’s a quick and easy route to tragedy. What makes this one especially juicy is just how many people can get sucked in and dragged down to hellish levels. Both the target and the perpetrator may end up worse than before. There’s a few things to consider when writing about revenge. What was the initial incident that made the character long for revenge? How did the characters know each other, and what was their relationship prior? What is the perpetrator hoping to achieve or gain from this revenge? POWER Power comes in many different forms. Wealth, knowledge, strength, magic – all can drive a person to extreme lengths. In addition, other traits play into the lust for power. Jealousy, inferiority, anger, and other emotions will come out with power on the table. Power can be fun to use, since you can work in a lot of moral dilemmas or complex decisions. Think about what it would take to obtain power in your story. Is it a path the character must walk alone? If so, then people must be cut from the character’s life. What kind of impact would that have? Ian Hebeisen is a writer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Graduating in May 2020 with a degree in English Literature with a Writing Emphasis, Ian writes comics, poetry, and scripts. He is currently an intern for The Brain Health Magazine and aims to work in the comic publishing industry. In his spare time, Ian plays Dungeons & Dragons, board games, and bass guitar.
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