Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39267
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I wrote a story in a boarding school, its protagonist a student facing obstacles from a new teacher, the headmistress and her daughters. Later in the story, the new teacher discovered he would lose the use of his legs (which is a downer, if somewhat different from grief), and the headmistress died (which, for her daughters, is definitely grief). Given how the teacher and daughters had been presented, how did I show them coping with what they'd been through?

In the teacher's case, his role as a "bad guy" stemmed from opinions the protagonist didn't share. The teacher gradually changes his mind on these issues because of his experiences in the book, and he becomes a better person for it. But he could come across as quite, quite heartless in the earlier chapters; and I'd imagine if he looked back on what he used to be like, he'd admit as much. In the girls' case, much of their demeanor was a product of their cruel mother's encouragement, and following her death they had to assess who she was, since a lot of people were happy about it.

Heartlessness, like all traits of people, comes from somewhere. Why be kind when you don't believe the sorts of ideas that make sense of kindness? And horrible experiences force us to do more than just find resources and do more for ourselves; they make us contextualise something unexpected. I'm not saying your character has to reject everything they used to believe, or stop sympathising with who they used to be. But you need to show them go on some kind of mental journey (at least, if you're using my strategy).

Original score: 2