Make it worse. Advice for Writing and Life.
Pulitzer Prize finalist Rebecca Makkai tells it like it is. And then makes it more terrifying.
On Wednesdays I do one of two things (I’m pro-choice,) I write about writing or I share writing that I have written that is “real writing.” Write on. (x6)
FIVE (This is the start of a countdown which is creating tension and action in the post. Obviously. And it absolutely is not a problem that I needed to explain it to you.)
Doom scrolling took on new meaning to me when I came across Amy Sedaris’s (f’ing s apostrophes will never make me feel confidant) video of the world’s highest roller coaster. She told me to ‘wait for it’ and as the crickety old coaster climbed slowly over mountain peaks to its highest point there was only sky. And falling. Then loops and speed and sky and mountain peaks and screaming that was possibly mine.
It was terrifying.
FOUR
Yesterday I went to a craft talk at the Light House by Rebecca Makkai titled “Make it Worse.” Finally. Advice I can follow. It turns out that it is uncomfortable to be uncomfortable. Who knew? Rebecca did. Tension, conflict, stakes, escalation. Those are the things that make us want to read on. Thrillers are thrilling for the reader. But as the writer it feels shitty to make your characters suffer. Anyone who has sat through a revision class has been told to “kill their darlings” referring to certain lines, scenes and characters that you feel attached to but don’t do anything to create conflict. Lots of writers keep a file on their computers where their darlings have been cut and pasted into draft purgatory. It reminds me of the Seinfeld bit about stuff that goes into the garage for storage. It never makes it back into the house. Those darlings never make it back into our books. Rebecca tells us that we don’t need to kill our darlings, or even store them in the garage. Instead we can torture them. And thus save them in the end.
THREE
A primer on torture: It doesn’t need to include pliers and fingernails (although it might) or dark cells with dank rivulets of water(although that would certainly work) it just needs to include obstacles like a cold mother, a cancer diagnosis, a lost cell phone with nuclear codes, or a sinkhole that leads to a alterna-world inhabited by slimy centipedes. In my worst case scenario it is a ride on a roller coaster. The tallest roller coaster in the world. Ridden by a character who is afraid of heights. With a drunk operator. On splitting rails. With a bomb she needs to diffuse attached to the underside of the biggest loop. Strapped onto a toddler. Or something.
TWO
Oh and the character? Maybe you found out she was afraid of heights earlier when she fell off a step ladder trying to change the batteries on the smoke detector (which should also go on the torture list) or that she has a sick toddler at home, or that she got fired from her job on the bomb squad for letting her partner die. It is these vulnerabilities, limitations, insecurities, that offer the opportunity for most conflict then change and growth in your characters.
ONE
She said that lots of her students are worried about slow pacing, that interiority and back story are things they avoid to keep the action going. Rebecca says “nah.” She made an analogy of a taut clothes line. The tighter the line the more it can hold. So make things tense and load up the (dirty) laundry. As that roller coaster chugs slowly slowly to its height you can tell the story of the first time she met her now-dead partner, the the shopping trip where she bought her sandals, or whatever. People won’t stop reading until they know what happens to the bomb.
I bet it’s that mystery that allows her ‘deeply felt examination and stirring exploration of collective memory.’ The murder of her former roommate allows for a lot of emotional laundry on the metaphoric line.
BOOM
Oh…and we all have homework that will annoy our friends and family (the best kind.) Next time you are watching something pause it every 20 minutes and ask “if this movie ended right now what would I desperately want to know.” The answer tells you what the stakes are. Unless the answer is “no” in which case you should just turn off the movie and stop torturing your nice family.
Are you afraid of roller coasters? Not even that one? Have you read Rebecca’s book? Or one of the others? Oh…are you watching Ted Lasso tonight? I will not be pausing it.
LOVE your writing! I'm currently reading Makkai's "The Great Believers", and it's delicious~
Forget Ms. Makkai. I love your story ideas, especially number 3.