Give Them Something to Hate

I hate making phone calls.

When it comes to picking up the phone, I always procrastinate as long as possible. It might take me a month to get around to calling for a haircut appointment or a wellness checkup. I cannot explain why I hate phone calls. It is simply part of who I am.

Unfortunately, no matter how much I wish I could avoid them, making phone calls is part of modern life. I will never enjoy it, but I do it when I have to.

Do your characters have something they dislike but can’t avoid?

Well-rounded characters need weaknesses as well as strengths. Giving them a specific task or two they detest will add depth, especially if that task is something they cannot avoid.

For example, what if a secretary hated making phone calls? Or filing papers? She couldn’t admit such a thing to her boss, could she? But her secret dislike has the potential to cause complications. She might procrastinate the filing until papers pile up and important documents get lost. She might put off phone calls until the last moment, adding stress to her life and creating emergencies that wouldn’t have occurred if she’d made the call when her boss first requested the information.

Can you see how a detested task will both ratchet up the tension and make your characters more interesting?

Make it authentic: The key is to find something in their temperament or background that gives a ring of authenticity to their particular dislikes. In my case, avoiding the telephone is a common attribute of introverts. Any character with an introverted temperament could believably suffer from the same “the-telephone-is-the-instrument-of-the-devil” mentality.

Make it plausible:  Readers might wonder why the introverted character who hates phone calls is working as a secretary to begin with. So the character needs not only a chore to hate, but also a valid reason for not avoiding it. It may be the secretary is a whiz at administrative tasks, so phone calls are a necessary evil in a job she otherwise enjoys. Or maybe her dread of phone calls makes her hate her job, but expectations or necessity have forced her into a career as a secretary.

Same dislike, two very different stories.

What story are you trying to tell? How can an onerous task enhance both your plot and your character?