Wednesday, November 30, 2016

V is for Victim

Paula looks at the ‘victims’ in our stories.  

The dictionary definition of victim is “someone or something that has been hurt, damaged, or killed or has suffered, either because of the actions of someone or something else, or because of illness or chance.”

If we were writing crime novels, the ‘victim’ would probably be obvious, but if we look at the wider definition, we can see that characters in romance novels can also be victims.

They can, of course, be victims in an accident of some kind – a car crash, flood, or fire, or they can be victims of some form of physical abuse.

Other times a character can be the victim of anger, jealousy, lies, emotional blackmail, false accusations, or other ‘trouble-making’ by another person – an ex-lover (either the heroine’s or the hero’s), or someone with a grudge, or with their own agenda.

And, of course, characters can be the victims of their own inner issues e.g. self-doubt, misconceptions, false reasoning, lack of trust etc.

The important thing is that the hero/heroine are no longer victims by the end of the story. They have found a way to handle the victimisation and overcome it, or have developed inner strengths to deal with their own inadequacies. In this way, our characters will develop and learn more about themselves and other people.

7 comments:

  1. Their journey should help them develop, grow in confidence and be a stronger person at the end of the story.

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  2. So the protagonist is in some way a victim in a story because s/he has a wound that must be overcome over the course of the story?

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    1. I don't really like the word 'wound' as it implies something that can heal of its own accord. But yes, one or both of the protagonists have something to resolve.

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  3. I never really thought about it this way...but many of our characters' inner conflicts and issues come from being victimized by something in their past...whether physical or emotional.

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    1. Emotional works best for me! But not PTSD - I've seen too many stories that seem to rely on the hero having some form of PTSD.

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