Putting your OC through "hell"

[kyupol]

So what do you think of a story where the MC is constantly being hit by tragedy after tragedy after tragedy. As in nothing seems to be going right for them.

Is that a good plot or nay?

[Spectorium_1]

It's all character development

Seriously though, yes, it's a good event, but use it when needed, or if it's the main theme of your story. Personally, I like to give them the best ending they can as well, so it's satisfactory.

Also, they don't have to be all dreary. In reality, the people who are the kindest, or most positive/happy tend to be the ones that have gone through hell and back. It would be interesting to see the development.

[RobertBMarks]

So what do you think of a story where the MC is constantly being hit by tragedy after tragedy after tragedy. As in nothing seems to be going right for them.

I think it's asking for the Eight Deadly Words ("I don't care what happens to these people") from the reader. If all you're doing is putting your protagonist through a trauma conga line, with no hope of anything ever getting better for them, why should the reader keep reading?

Look, any character is going to go through hell in a story - they are using their agency to pursue a goal, but are being faced by an equal or greater force of antagonism. Much of their journey will be marked by failure, followed by picking themselves up and trying again. But if the point comes where there seems to be no hope of them ever achieving their goal and all they can do is lose, with no means of forward progress, readers are going to start losing interest.

Part of the expectation a reader has is that when a character goes through hell, they WILL come back out again at the end - what they have signed on for is that journey. If it looks like you're not going to provide it, they will walk.

[froge27]

i mean its more of a plot than giving the mc good luck and everything goes good for them but i would suggest giving the mc a reason to live you know like a romantic partner or a bsf a dog etc.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

So what do you think of a story where the MC is constantly being hit by tragedy after tragedy after tragedy. As in nothing seems to be going right for them.

Is that a good plot or nay?

That depends-- is there a point? ^^;

Whether good things or bad things happen to a character isn't actually as important as a sense of progress: y'know, making the audience feel like they're following these events for a reason, that there's going to be some kind of payoff for their investment at some point.

You can have a character suffer and suffer with no end in sight, but still make for a good story by progressing something. Maybe the suffering changes the character over the course of the plot, turning them from someone peaceful and kind to someone bitter and mean (and said character has to contend with that). Maybe the suffering is merely a secondary element to some kind of horror or mystery plot that the characters and audience are focusing on instead. There are lots of ways to make it work.

When you don't try though, that's when the point @RobertBMarks made about the audience 'losing interest' comes in. Suffering in and of itself is not interesting. If all you're doing with a story is making a character into a punching bag, with no real plot progression or other entertaining elements to be had, people will eventually pick up on that and drop you. There's only so much nondescript pity you can squeeze out of the viewer before they begin to ask themselves "...what's the point?"

[ratscout]

Absolutely it can be. I'm not a very big fan of torture for the sake of torture, but when the torture is meaningful... when the audience feels like they are literally suffering with the character rather than like they are watching torture porn or something, then I think these sorts of stories can be incredibly powerful. We, as human beings, usually have to go through some sort of hell in our lives, and watching a character experience the same sort of pain we do, or worse, makes for a powerful experience. Suffering can be very meaningful.

[GumshoeComix]

This is everything I write so of course I like it. just remember to give them moments of happiness and levity too to give the reader some room to breathe!

[DasIstWunderblyat]

Sometimes you can sense that it's not for the plot advancement, characterization, or any particular meaning. It can also be overdone that there is no time for its resolution or even a breathing room. Or that the torture are surprisingly brutal compared to other aspects that it feels like a different series. The writer just loves torturing the hell off their characters. Many writers do.

As long as the torture bring something to the story and character development, thematically and tonally coherent, and not being overdone, it is okay.

[BoomerZ]

You can make a tragedy but you need to give the character some small wins. Wins that mean something and are small but wins none the less. Just like you can't have your MC win everything they try, losing everything is just as boring. It should be an up and down fight, even if the downs are deeper than ups, as they sink to their doom.

[LostKelp]

It depends, is it a comedy? Then yes, seeing people fail in absurd ways is almost as funny as people succeeding in absurd ways, 90% of comedy is things going wrong and people getting more and more outlandish with their responses. (You can even leverage this comedy for drama by someone reaching a breaking point and lashing out because everything is going wrong for them no matter what they do, turning the comedy tragic - which is fun)

I'm assuming that this isn't a comedy though and you want a serious drama were things are always going bad for your characters in which case you can but if you mess up you'll look like the next misery porn of the week, you need to be sure that your characters are good or your themes are interesting because your plot will be boring as hell, A good way to keep it varied is to have the character react to their failure in different ways, maybe at first laughing it off then getting more serious before boiling over into anger at their darkest hour TM or you can have them continuously fail but in different ways eg. If your protags keep on loosing the exact same kind of chase scene, get captured, escape, have another chase scene and they fail its boring but if they fail the chase scene, get captured then have to do a stealth mission, succeed in escaping but leave a friend behind, that's good drama.

So in short yes, it can be a good plot, but you can mess it up very easily.

[UrMom]

Lmao! I do that with my comic, for most of the story at least.

It's fun to do, but I wouldn't necessarily call it "good plot". A ton of people hate it, call it torture/tragedy porn, or glorification/fetishization/romanticizing of trauma, abuse, or whatever bad thing the story is focusing on. Folks generally like balance, a fair amount of sad mixed with happy makes for a "good plot". Personally I like downer stories, they help me vent my own negative feelings and thoughts in a safe way, so they feel good to consume and create.

Execution is key imo, but tragedy is the one thing that gets grief if it's done too often since people don't like to be sad. Regardless, an author should just do what they want. Who cares if it's bad, if you get something out of creating it that's all that matters.

[OohitsEli]

I second this! In stories where tragedy is the main focus I find that constant suffering seems rather gratuitous, and even in stories where it is the main focus, such as mine, the characters should still have moments where they can smile and have some respite.

[Kann]

It's all about the execution

If it gets too dark and hopeless, readers might get emotionally exhaused, It the stakes are too low for character to go through the suffering, readers might get bored.

A small win or just a moment of peace here and there is not a bad idea. Or if all the suffering causes a change in the character.

[powerplantanimations]

This statement may seem out of character for ME (although despite me killing characters without warning), but I will say it's alright to put the character after tragedy after tragedy. I mean, there can be a point (I personally like it when there is one), but then I remember this experimental movie where it's just people tripping out on LSD and just wailing like animals. I don't know what it was, but it was considered to be one of the best horror movies of all time.

You can have a point, but at the same time, you don't need one either? Like your point can be "this stuff happens". People complain that isn't good enough and expect a message, but the very same people are content with there being no meaning in life. I remember Lynch saying this in an interview. It's hypocritical.

Then again though, I'd prefer if a person with HEAVY life experience writing something like this because it's easy to fall into that trap a lot of modern stories fall into. Cough Star Trek Cough

But yeh I agree with people on the thread, don't be fetishy with it. :v

[DokiDokiTsuna]

People complain that isn't good enough and expect a message, but the very same people are content with there being no meaning in life. I remember Lynch saying this in an interview. It's hypocritical.

That's...such a strange thing to say. ^^;; I don't think it's hypocritical to want different things out of completely different situations...life is given to you without your permission or input. Why and how it even exists is considered one of humanity's biggest questions.
Meanwhile a story is just...a singular, limited experience. =/ One that usually has a definite reason for being brought into existence, even if that reason is merely "the author thought it would be fun". And if we invest our time or money into a story, it's usually because we consciously chose to before we even began to experience it.

So...yeah. Not the same thing at all, so it's only natural that people have differing expectations out of one or the other. Besides, there are tons of people who want a 'meaning' to their lives; the logic doesn't even track...has he never heard of religion, for instance??

[thecrystalrook]

Put them through hell, fine. But make sure they learn something at each step of hell that they apply at later steps. Characters can still have growth through hell!

For a literal story of putting the MC through hell and still having them come out with significant growth, read Spawn

[powerplantanimations]

But yeah I think you're right on the money. On the otherhand, I do appreciate David's "figure it out" mentality.

Here's another one just for fun:

[system]

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