The Tragic Hero No Writer Wants to Create- 3 Ways to Avoid It.

If you are at all like me you probably have a couple of incomplete stories stuffed away somewhere. Some poor character is stuck in story limbo. Once they were the embodiment of your creative mind, now they are just a dust coated after thought, a story untold. Truly, a more tragic fate for a character could not be written. Even if a character must die, it is better to have completed their story than to just lay forgotten on the page.

What caused this tragedy? How can we save our heroes (and our villains) from this fate?

I pulled out a few of my unfinished stories the other night and sought for a reason why I didn't finish them. I came up with three reasons: One, a "better" story idea came to mind. Two, I began to doubt if the story was any good. Three, I got bored.

Coming up with why I didn't finish them was a great start, but that isn't enough to spare these characters from the worst of fates. To spare them, I completed each of their stories. Strangely, they all came to the same ending, "Suddenly a meteor came crashing through the atmosphere obliterating all life...the end." No, not a satisfying end. But, for those poor characters it was a resolution. In honor of those poor, tragic souls I have come up with three ways to protect future characters from the same fate.

Keep a notebook for new ideas
Your brain is relentless. It is always coming up with new ideas. Each new idea always seems like the best idea when it is first born. Wonderful, write it down and then set it aside. Keep going on the story you're writing. Even if every instinct tells you that your latest idea is the greatest every created, just write the idea down and then return to the first story. If it is the greatest story, it will still be the greatest story after you've completed the one your working on. A good story involves immersion from the author, once the author steps outside of the story to begin a new one it is almost always too difficult to return. The story becomes forgotten and we have a tragedy.

Don't fight doubt
From time to time your inner critic is going to whisper in your ear that the story you a writing is no good. I imagine that even the best author's have moments of doubt like this. Most of the time all it takes is a little mental "shushing" and the critic goes away. But sometimes, the critic seems to have a chip on its shoulder and no matter how much you argue with it the doubt won't go away. Stop fighting. Open up a new page on your word process or turn to a blank sheet in your notebook and let the critic say whatever it has to say. Get it all out on paper. When nothing new seems to be getting said, calmly ask the critic, "Anything else?" If there is, continue recording it, then ask the question again. When nothing else can be said, just exit out of the page without saving it or toss out the page. Don't make a big deal out of, don't get defiant. Just discard it as if it were nothing and return to your story.

Write every day
One of the hardest things to overcome in a story is boredom. Once boredom sets in then writing the story become a chore. Nobody likes chores. One of the easiest ways to get bored with a story is walking away from it for a couple of days. If you aren't immersed in your story you will grow bored. Even if you are disciplined enough to return to the story and write it to completion the boredom will show. Your readers will become bored. Stay involved in the story. Every day write something about it. Even if you have obligations for the entire day, you owe it to yourself and the characters in your story to devote a minimum of ten minutes to writing. Those ten minutes will be enough to re-read the last page you wrote and write a paragraph or two. It forces you to stay in the story a little longer, hopefully long enough to get you to an extended chunk of time where you can really enter your work. If you can't find ten minutes in any given day, you seriously need to consider whether writing is something you should be doing. You owe it to the your characters. Let their story be told.