Building Character Through Adversity
Facing Challenges Reveals a Character's Hidden Mettle
This is part of my “Art of Noticing” series, in which I learn, find, or discover the things around me that usually go unnoticed and turn them into an endless source of creative inspiration.
NOTE: The last of these “Noticings” blog posts will run on April 13th. I’m going to keep recording the 9-minute daily podcast on which these posts are based, though, so if you want to keep your dose of daily Noticings, be sure to subscribe to the Art of Noticing podcast here on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
(You could also listen here on Substack, but that’s a miserable way to listen to a podcast so I don’t recommend it. Do yourself a favor and use a podcast app so you can listen on your commute or at the gym or something.)
People in Texas have no idea how to drive in snow and ice. They just don’t get it often enough. What’s more, the roads aren’t meant for it. Even if there’s salt (there never is), there’s something about the surface that still stays slippery. So when snow and ice comes to Texas, watch out. Even if you’re good in winter driving (like me; I grew up in Ohio), it might be other drivers that get you.
Recently, I was unable to avoid it. On the third morning of a three-day Dallas volleyball tournament, we found ourselves stuck and needing to drive home to Austin after some super cold temperatures and winter weather. We checked with the news and others in our party, who said the roads were fine.
They weren’t.
Coming up on a sea of red lights on an overpass, I knew to be careful. I saw how slick it was and was slowly making my way over to one side, trying to avoid the cars slaloming around me. I was just getting settled when I saw a big pickup that thought it could power through and not slow down. By the time he started to slow, it was too late. He had to be going 40, and I saw that bastard coming in my rearview.
While I’m trying to avoid the other cars already.
While I too was on ice, unable to move away if he bounced toward me, and he was bouncing side to side and turning endwise already.
All I could think was, “Okay, this is going to happen.”
I watched as he went just to one side, annihilating the back of a car. A big chain reaction ensued: crash after crash. I wanted to drive quickly away from the onslaught, but doing so would only make me skid. So I had to stay firm, be cool, do my best, and hope.
It wasn’t until after it was over — after we’d stopped and checked on everyone, learning there were miraculously no injuries — that I realized how I should have freaked out but instead stayed perfectly calm.
But here’s the lesson: That’s not something you can learn without a crisis. It takes extreme situations to reveal things about a person — or a character — so maybe extremity is something that we as writers should do more often.
Here's how this "noticing" can influence my stories and art:
Give Trials by Fire
I was caught off guard by my skid. That’s the whole point: danger we never see coming. So in the same way, you can test your characters. You can put them through surprising trials mean to reveal core traits under pressure. Apply pressure, then wait. What comes out? Do they fold, or do you instead get courage, integrity, and maybe even sacrifice.
Smart writers don’t let their characters off easy. You can use challenges to build their development, because difficult times are times for growth — catalyzing quiet qualities that would otherwise stay dormant.
Reveal Unexpected Skills
Stepping away from crisis and embracing the whole “what lies beneath” idea, you can also give characters surprising hidden talents that somehow emerge to meet unexpected challenges. These are things the characters themselves might not even know they have, like facility with languages, physical grace, or intense problem-solving ability.
Deviate from the usual stuff from time to time: attributes like smarts or strength. Trying on some unusual aptitudes instead can really add dimension and intrigue for the reader. And of course, it might be just the right crisis that unlocks their potential.
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I enjoy putting characters in situations to see how they would do things vs how I would. On ice? I'm from Western NY - the snow belt part. I've shoveled more snow than most people have seen on TV. Blizzard of 77, baby! Now I live in NC where no one knows how to drive in bad weather of any sort - where people fully stop at lights on ice then sit and spin or slide backward downhill. I drive around them on the shoulder to not break traction.
Tip: carry a bag of kitty litter in your trunk during winter. If you get stuck, you have something to spread around a couple tires to help regain traction. Never Fully Stop unless you have no choice.