Get the main character up a tree…

 Michael - Alternate Thursdays

“The writer’s job is to get the main character up a tree, and then once they are up there, throw rocks at them.” - Vladimir Nabokov

First step
Man up tree

[I couldn't resist trying out Chat GPT as the artist to illustrate this topic. Man up the tree came out pretty well. I like his stare into the distance. Worried about the stone throwers, I'd guess.

Second step
Addition of stone throwers

When I asked for the addition of the stone throwers, the perspective became suspect and the whole affair rather biblical. But then that's not unreasonable if you're into stoning people.]

Back to topic. It’s obvious what it means of course - make life impossibly difficult for the main character. This is especially true for thrillers, but probably applies to all fiction. If you work at it, you can get characters into a lot of trouble. However, there are some issues that need to be addressed. The reader needs to care about the character, otherwise the reaction is 'so what'?  However, while it’s quite easy to get the character up there, then what? If it’s really impossibly difficult, the character has no hope. That’s the most intriguing scenario for the reader, but now you have to rescue the character from the impossible situation. Somehow. Unless you’re writing The Lord of the Rings, you can’t have an eagle arrive, invite the character onto its back, and fly off, taking evasive action to avoid the stones.

Jeffrey Deaver says that he plots his books in such detail because of exactly this issue. He needs to know how far he can drive the protagonist up the tree and how many stone throwers he can have and yet still save the character for the next crisis. He's got a point.

Stanley and I are largely “pansers” so we don’t plot more than a general outline. However, our character-up-the-tree is the bad guy, so we don’t expect the reader to identify with him. On the other hand, we need to get him down because we want the book to have an interesting and exciting conclusion. Also, his victim, a boy we hope the reader will care about, is depending on him to return or to tell someone where he is. He's up his own tree. Yet the bad guy is stuck. He has to find someone and has no way of going about that. (The tree.) The whole Botswana police force is looking for him. (The stone throwers.) How is he going to pull that off?

Actually, unfortunately we don’t know. We have some ideas, but most of them have flaws or are too much like the eagle approach. We’re working on it right now. 

So back to work. Hopefully I can give you positive update in two weeks' time.