Where would a story be without some good, sink-your-teeth-into angst? Unpublished, that’s where it would be. It’s a rare tale indeed that makes it to bookstores without plenty of angst. Of course there are some literary and “slice-of-life” novels that qualify as exceptions, but for the sake of this discussion we’ll concentrate on some elements of successfully employed angst—i.e. conflict.
Conflict is of course most effective when seen through the eyes of characters we care about. That’s what makes it angst: if we didn’t care about the characters to begin with, whatever obstacles they’re facing, whatever dangers might be lurking, whatever enemies they must face would mean little or nothing.
So connecting your reader to your character is the first step in building angst that works. The trick is to make that connection in a way that introduces your plot quickly, because nowadays readers don’t have patience for a lot of background information. Aim to reveal the qualities of your character through action as it relates to your plot from page one.
The next thing to consider is making your angst not only believable, but sympathetic. If the biggest obstacle your character faces is not having enough cash at a tollbooth, patience will be out the window if your character crumbles and bursts into tears. It won’t even matter if you foreshadow the event by searching for change in pockets, ashtrays or purses while road signs repeatedly warn the character of an upcoming toll station. A meaningless obstacle and over-reaction won’t evoke sympathy from the tollbooth operator—or from your reader.
Also consider using more than one front through a “perfect storm” of angst. Doesn’t it seem like life can be this way sometimes? Who among us hasn’t had a few encounters with Murphy’s Law? (Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.) Well, in books it’s Murphy’s Law to the enth degree—because that’s what fiction is, bigger than life, with greater goals, greater obstacles, greater perseverance and greater accomplishment.
You can and probably should start out with smaller hurdles for your character to leap first. Although Indiana Jones started out with plenty of angst, even his story built to a greater climax. The natural progression of any story is to build one obstacle upon the next, adding greater need and greater risk, greater emotional entanglement, so when everything seems absolutely lost you’ll have your readers biting their fingernails. If you can take it even one step farther than that, kicking your characters when they’re already down, then writing instructors like Donald Maass will think that’s even better. Your reader just might cheer out loud when things come to a satisfying end after so black a moment.
And that’s what it’s all about—the emotional involvement of your reader. Creating a character to care about, one who’s going after a well-motivated goal with logical but seemingly insurmountable obstacles to overcome, battles both internal and external to fight, persevering to an emotionally satisfying end. With those elements in place, you’ll provide a story that’ll satisfy almost every die-hard reader (like me, and probably like you, too).
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