Recently I had the opportunity to be on Dr. Terry Lovell's radio show on KYCA-AM and talk about my book "Dark Wings." No surprise, I got asked about how I write. One of things I pointed out was that in order to be a good writer, you have to be a sadist. What do I mean by that? Basically, you need to make your characters suffer. Keep piling on the challenges, angst, disappointments and hardships. And I said this with a smile, and if I remember right, a chuckle.
Well, karma must have caught up with me, because days later, I'm watching the movie "Serenity," the wrap-up to the brilliant TV series "Firefly" (Oh, I should mention, spoiler alert coming). So I get to the point where Serenity is weaving its way through a huge battle between the Alliance and the Reavers. The pilot, Wash, one of my favorite characters, is yanking and banking and doing everything he can to shake off a pursuing Reaver ship. He flies into a large building and pulls off an incredible crash landing. So I'm relieved, thinking they've escaped danger, and grinning at Wash's line, "I am a leaf on the wind."
Then BAM! Harpoon through the windshield. Harpoon through Wash. Just like that, Wash is dead.
What!?! Are you kidding me? They killed Wash? What the hell? Next thing you know, I'm shouting profanities at series creator Joss Whedon, including, "you sadistic bastard."
But through my anger, I had to give props to Whedon for his talent as a storyteller. I would never have reacted that way had Wash not been such a compelling character. For me, Wash was the every man. He wasn't tall and dashing and muscular. He was just, well, a guy, with a wicked, sometimes biting, sense of humor, who as luck would have it, was married to a gorgeous, kick-ass space amazon, a.k.a., Zoe. You couldn't help but root for him. And that's why I had such a visceral reaction to his death.
Again, this is why being a sadist is necessary for being a writer. If you come up with a cool character and kill them off - which I have done on a few occassions - and readers start calling you a bastard, then you know you have done your job. You have pulled them into the story. You have made him or her care about a person who, let's face it, is nothing more than words on paper or on a screen.
But keep in mind, being a sadaist doesn't mean just killing off cool characters. You can't kill too many of them in a story, otherwise you risk alienating your readers. To quote another great "Firefly" line, this one from the villain Niska, "When you die, I can no longer hurt you."
Killing is quick. But you can make your characters suffer, and suffer, and suffer. Harry Potter is a perfect example. Think of everything he went through, from the death of his parents to having Voldemort targeting him to periods of alienation at school and so on and so on. And who can ever forget all the crap that happened to him in "The Order of the Phoenix." But that's what made him such a sympathetic character. So many bad things happened to Harry, you couldn't help but feel for the guy and pray something good would happen to him. When things did go well for him, like winning the Quidditch Cup in Book Three or kissing Cho Chang in Book Five, you had to give a fist pump. In my novel "Dark Wings," Major Jim Rhyne has enough problems fighting otherworldly creatures who have invaded Earth. But what happens when, on top of that, he is still coming to grips with the death of his wife, a death he blames himself for? The hero always has one main problem to overcome. Now add in another problem, and another and another. The death of Jim's wife is obviously a huge issue for him. But his grief filters its way into other aspects of his life, from his decisions on the battlefield to his dealings with a female soldier who is attracted to him.
Challenges and hardships are necessary for any character you want the reader to get behind. Who's going to be sympathetic to a character who has everything go his or her way? Boooo-ring! But throw lots of obstacles in your hero's path, and now you've made things interesting.
I will admit, making your characters suffer isn't easy. They're your creation. You care about them, you nuture them and make them grow. It's kind of like with children. You don't want anything bad to happen to them. But sometimes that love and caring needs to get shoved into a lock box so you can dump ten tons of bad on them. If you pull it off right, you may have a fan say to you, "You sadastic bastard! I can't believe you did that to (insert character name here)!
"Oh, by the way, I still enjoy your books."

--John J. Rust is the author of the sci-fi invasion novel "Dark Wings, available from Amazon or as an e-book at smashwords.com .