Make your hero suffer like you don't care what your friends think

Title: 11/22/63

Author: Stephen King

Progress: 100%

Platform: Kindle

Amazon Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

NYT BS Hardcover/E-Book List: #1 (debuted at number 1, and still at number 1)

Book 6 out of 107

Annnnnd ... we are back...

The holidays and work got in the way of this little project. Life does get in the way of our big plans, doesn't it? Fate throws things in our way, tests us, makes sure we really want what we say we want. 

That thought ties in nicely with "11/22/63," which is about about fate, about the things we can and cannot change.

When last we talked, I was halfway done reading it and had mapped out the outline Mr. King used for the first two quarters. The second two section fall perfectly into an outline, with big course changes happening at 50% and 75%.

Section Three has our hero, Jake, spying on Lee Harvey, working out if he actually was the JFK assassin or not. This is an important story problem because if Jake knows for sure, this becomes a short book. Jake kills Lee, runs back through the rabbit hole, and boom, done.

With a smidge of doubt, Jake just can't kill Lee in cold blood. He can't murder an innocent man. He has to know for sure.

This section is the most problematic, and Mr. King has said in interviews that he hopes it's not boring, all the logistics of setting up eavesdropping equipment and then doing the tedious work of actually spying on people. 

Mr. King's instinct is right. Those bits are boring. Why? Because Lee Harvey is a bore. He's a snotty, spoiled brat with delusions of grandeur. Until he picks up his rifle and goes out shooting at people, he doesn't do or say anything all that interesting. He's not actually part of a conspiracy, so Jake listens in on family arguments and political chit-chat. 

Luckily we've got the romantic sub-plot to keep us entertained. Will those crazy kids get together, our time traveler and his lovely librarian? We hope! 

The last quarter of the book is devoted to the prevention of the assassination and its aftermath. It's as  an exciting a final act as I have ever read. It's also a clever piece of clockworks that brings together all the gears, levers and springs that Mr. King has spent 100,000 words putting into the place and winding up.

Here are all the parts that come together...

1. Jake tells Sadie that he's from the future and why he is in 1962.

2. Sadie, her face horribly scarred after being attacked by her asshole ex-husband, is ready to help.

3. The mobsters who Jake has been robbing with his 100% accurate sports bet, catch up with him and beat the snot out of him. He is so injured that there is no way he can complete his mission without Sadie's help.

4. The past itself, as it has been for the entire book, makes things close to impossible. To change the future in such an epic way, the past demands a high price, punishing, heartbreaking price.

5. Lee himself reveals himself as the lone gunman, the single, arrogant asshole who decided he was special enough to change the world with nothing but a mail order rifle.

After all that comes together in the sixth floor of the Dallas Library Repository, Lee is finally stopped. The president is saved. We get what we were waiting for, and then we move into the aftermath, the effect of Jake's heroic cause.

I won't get into the ending. Some like it. Some hate it. I liked it, with some mixed feelings. 

I won't spoil the ending for you because it doesn't have anything to do with the lesson of the day. What is the lesson? Make your hero suffer like you hate him.

Yes, sure, absolutely, ever how-to-write-a-novel book says about the same thing. Yet, I've found it's hard to make my imaginary people, especially my hero, suffer. 

Part of me worries that going to far with the suffering would make my story overly dramatic and sensational. Another part of me actually feels bad for my people, doesn't want to hurt them too much, because I like them and want them to be happy.

And there is this other worry I have while writing, the worry about people I know reading my work and thinking...That is so cruel! So gross! I am so weirded out that this nice guy that I know wrote this hardcore, depressing, gross, sick stuff!

When writing, stop caring about the people in your personal life think.
Care only about keeping the reader on the page.

So I pull back. I soften. I sanitize.

Mr. King doesn't. He makes Jake suffer in a variety of ingenious ways, mentally and physically, from a cracked skull and bruised brain to the heartache of losing the love of your life. When Jake is beaten by the gangsters, you feel the pain of each steel-toed kick to the face and baseball bat to the spleen. You want it to stop, hope for it to end, and just when you think it might, Mr. King goes a little further, pummeling you as much as the hero.

I don't think Mr. King cares what the people in his personal life think. He cares far more about grabbing the reader by the neck and not letting go.

I think the lesson is if you aren't going so far that you fear offending your friends and family, you aren't going far enough.

Imagine if Stieg Larrson had cut out the anal rape scene in "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" because he was concerned about what his wife and friends would think. If he does that, the book doesn't work. We never understand Lisbeth's rage and develop the strong desire to see her come out okay. Without the rape scene, the book doesn't set the world on fire, and maybe doesn't even get published.

So what have we learned? Make your hero suffer, really suffer, suffer to the point you worry about what your family will think about you.

Next up, "1Q84."