REVENGE: A Case Study in Concept and Character Likeability

by Martina Boone

It’s no secret that this season’s hot new TV series, REVENGE, is a modern twist on THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO with a female lead. Genius idea, right? Dumas’ classic was originally serialized, presented, one segment at a time, for maximum impact. A high-adventure soap crafted to get people talking about vengeance and mercy, hope and hopelessness, justice and injustice. And REVENGE, too, offers all of that.

But talk about likability issues. The show’s writers have a challenge before them. Emily Thorne aka Amanda Clarke shows up in the Hamptons intent on revenging herself against the people who destroyed her life, and she does it with a chillingly cold, systematic ruthlessness that leaves us shivering as we watch. There is nothing to connect us to this character. Or is there? What makes us willing to swim in the cesspool of her head?

First, there’s the glamour and suspense. The program opens with a literal bang as we discover Emily’s fiance, the son of the people most responsible for falsely imprisoning Emily’s beloved father, getting shot during her engagement party. So right off, there’s the mystery: who did it? Only then do we get the backstory. Amanda Clarke is idyllically happy with her father in their huge Hamptons home until the society queen he loves conspires with her own husband to lock him up for crimes he didn’t commit. Then Amanda herself is locked up as the Grayson’s bribe and coerce a series of officials to hide her away in the interests of greed and self-preservation.

So okay, we’re sympathetic. Emily lost her father and her childhood. She’s lost her fiance. (We’re not actually sure that she loves him though.)

We do know, or at least we quickly come to find out, that Emily had a dog and a best friend, Jack, when she was little. Jack is now grown and gorgeous, and the dog is old and still loyal to Emily. More sympathy. Brilliant but predictable.

Except that Jack isn’t who Emily is engaged to. Nope, that would be Daniel Grayson. But the writers still use Jack (and the dog) shamelessly to show us why we’re supposed to like Emily. Why we should forgive her being cold to Nolan, the one guy who goes out of his way to help her. Why we should ignore her coldly turning down Jack in favor of Daniel. Why we should forgive her for being cold period. Because we don’t ever see Emily breaking down, being weak, being traditionally, compensatingly kind.

The writers keep Emily teetering on the edge of likeability in the greyspace between too cold for sympathy and warm enough to make us less fascinated. And they keep us breathless, wondering when the crash is coming. Every week Emily makes one tiny miscalculation after another, out of compassion or arrogance or poor assumption, that leads her deeper into danger. We can’t look away.

So what can we learn from Emily?

We learn that you have to give the character something to fight for, something she craves to down to the wormwood of her soul, even if that’s nothing more laudable than revenge. If the character needs something desperately enough, we are invested in seeing if she gets it. Conversely, if we make someone else care about the character–even if it is just an old, yellow dog–we can make the character seem more likeable. REVENGE never shows Emily doing anything kind. But because someone else cares for her, and more importantly, at some point, someone else truly cared deeply for her, we care for what she has lost. Loving and being loved make her actions more sympathetic.

What do you think? What would you put into Emily’s story to keep her symptathetic? How often would you remind the reader about her motives? How well would her story work if we were reading it as a young adult novel?

How much, in the end, does character likeability matter in the face of a brilliant concept?

Leave a comment and I’ll throw in a copy of THE OTHER COUNTESS by Eve Edwards.

Here’s the book blurb from Goodreads:

It’s 1582 and eighteen-year-old Will Lacey’s family is in trouble. After years of wasteful spending, his late father has run Lacey Hall to near ruin. Tasked with marrying his family back into fortune, the new Earl of Dorset is all set for a season at court to woo not just the Queen but potential brides with his jousting skills. But when Ellie – a strong-willed girl with nothing to her name but a worthless Spanish title – catches Will’s eye, he faces a bigger battle than he could ever have anticipated.

Here’s to writing well: the best revenge,

Martina

Martina Boone

Martina Boone is the award-winning author of the romantic southern gothic Heirs of Watson Island series, starting with COMPULSION from Simon & Schuster, Simon Pulse and the Celtic Legends Collection of novels set in Scotland, Cornwall, and Ireland beginning with LAKE OF DESTINY. She’s passionate about improving lives through literacy and the love of books, and she runs the Compulsion For Reading program to distribute books to underserved schools and libraries.

She lives with her husband, children, Shetland Sheepdog Phinney, and Zoey the lopsided cat, and she enjoys writing contemporary romantic fiction with a hint of magic set in small towns and beautiful places. When she isn’t writing, she’s addicted to travel, horses, skiing, chocolate flavored tea, and anything with Nutella on it.

Post © Martina Boone and/or Adventures in YA Publishing. All rights reserved.

Posted: Nov 8, 2011

Category: Imported from AYAP

Tags: Character Development | Martina Boone | Premise | Story Structure

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The first slide is an animation of a science/magic room in a castle. A cartoon character of a mad-scientist looking man in in the foreground says: “Hello! Dr. Frankenstein here to say, Well Done on kid lit zombie week! I’m an expert at reviving the dead, and let me assure you, with a little spark, you can bring dead projects to life. Especially if you dig up parts from other dead things. I’ll even let you have a sneak peek at my laboratory’s store room to consider potential parts for your dead project. If you see something with a yellow glow, that means you should click it. Have fun!”

He points to the right side of the screen and a new scene slides in of a castle science/magic storage room. There are various cartoon Frankenstein body parts scattered around. Some of them have a yellow glow. If you click on them, the images below appear (I’ve added alt text to them, so I hope it works).

The Heart of your story is the main character. The protagonist is the beating core that truly brings your story to life. If your MC doesn't make kids (and their grown-ups) care within the first few pages, your story will flatline. </p>
<p>Your main character needs to be:<br />
• Relatable enough for kids to see themselves<br />
• Unique enough to stand out in the slush pile<br />
• Active enough to drive the story<br />
• Memorable enough to survive multiple readings at bedtime</p>
<p>Where do you find this amazing donor heart? It might be the very thing you loved so much about the manuscript you want to revive. It might be the younger sister from your shelved YA novel. Or maybe it’s the hilarious kid you blogged about meeting at a school visit. Find a character beating with potential and place it in the center of your story.<br />

The Brain of your story is the theme or central message. The theme is the big idea that controls everything else. Picture books are more than stories - they're tiny life lessons disguised with humor and heart.</p>
<p>But your theme needs to be:<br />
• Subtle enough not to trigger the dreaded "didactic" rejection<br />
• Clear enough for a four-year-old to grasp<br />
• Universal enough to speak to both kids and adults<br />
• Fresh enough to prevent agents and editors from responding with "Not another sharing/bedtime/first-day story!"</p>
<p>Check your other dead manuscripts to see if there is a recurring theme, something that really seems to be speaking to you. Find the bit of poetry you scribbled on the back of a receipt to see what theme inspired it. Reread the pep talk you texted your critique partner at 1am. Pick the theme that will drive your story, giving it purpose, direction, and deeper meaning.<br />

The Legs of your story is the plot. Not to be confused with a grave plot.🤪 The plot is what keeps everything upright and moving, as well as providing support for all the other elements. You have very few words to use in a picture book, so you need to do a lot with each plot point.</p>
<p>In general, your plot should:<br />
• Hook readers fast<br />
• Build tension that a child can follow<br />
• Create page turns that feel natural<br />
• Wrap up in a way that satisfies</p>
<p>You can borrow a plot twist (a leg) from one manuscript and the opening (the other leg) from a different manuscript. Consider if the subplot of the middle grade novel you trunked would work better as a picture book. Or maybe your Facebook post about a disastrous camping trip could become a story for kids. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other until you have your storyline.

The Arms of your story are the side characters.

The Torso of your story is the setting. Setting helps a story breathe and connects all the elements of the story. It isn't just where your story lives, it's what makes your story ALIVE. It's the difference between "this happened in a park" and "this happened in that park, the one with the twisty slide that burns your legs and the creaky swing that sounds like a baby crying.”</p>
<p>Your setting should:<br />
• Make your character's world feel real<br />
• Contain your story in a way that makes sense to young readers<br />
• Connect different scenes and moments organically<br />
• Give your illustrator enough room to add visual subplots</p>
<p>Half-finished manuscripts are a great place to dig up settings, since you worked out the place details before the plot petered out. Or maybe you had to cut a second fantastic location from your chapter book. You can also revisit the detailed caption from your Instagram carousel documenting your tour of that delish candy shop. Disinter a robust setting that can house all of your story's vital organs.

After you press the Click When Done circle button, the lights flash with the sound of electricity buzzing. Then the screen goes black and lightning zaps across the screen with the sound of thunder.

The screen then lights up to show the storage room, and all the Frankenstein pieces have been assembled into the whole monster. An upbeat song plays in the background. Then a speech bubble pops up with the words, “I’m alive! I’M ALIVE!” Then the screen goes to black.

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