Temptation

Temptation

Let’s be honest with ourselves.  Temptation sucks.  I’m trying to be “healthier” with myself.  Eat less sweets and try to eat more greens and all that kind of stuff.  Or even learn to use portion control.  Cause let’s be honest, each pizza I come across is a personal pizza if I so deem it to be.  And that’s not including whatever other nonsense I can list under temptations.
But wait.  But, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, wait.  Temptation in stories is something all together different.  We want to read about the hero going through some dangerous trial and tribulation to get the girl and save the day and all that jazz.  Part of those trials and tribulations are the temptations.  The evil seductress, the tempting offer of material wealth, power beyond our wildest dreams… you get the picture.
We want the hero to overcome these temptations, to show that he is better than the things that plague him.  We want him to struggle and come out on top.  It is because we strive to be those heroes that we want them to survive.  I’m just using that as a quick blanket statement, because let’s be honest with ourselves, some heroes we don’t want to be.  I dunno about you, but being killed or sacrificed or murdered or dealing with insurmountable grief isn’t something I really want to deal with in real life.
There’s a kind of voyeurism that comes along with reading.  We peek into their lives and their heads and their own problems.  We get to see them be the best in themselves, and the worst of themselves.  And we see them get tempted and fall or rise over that temptation.
We want them to survive and live and win.  We root for them from our voyeuristic position.  And sometimes they succeed and they beat their temptations.  We can learn from our fictional friends and heroes.  What to do, and what not to do.
And as stated, reading it for me is invigorating and exciting.  Writing it is a whole other issue.  There are times I just wanna make things perfect for my characters so that they won’t face hardships.  Other times I want to walk right up to them and shake them about and shout at them for being so freakin’ stupid.
I have to find the right balance between the two in order to have a “good” story.  I have to find the right place between the two so that they are tried and tempted and that they can succeed or fail in their own terms.  At some point, all I can do as a writer is to sit back and let them figure out their own problems for themselves.  It’s a little bit like that in real life.  Only, if someone is going through some shit, and you can help them, and they want you to help them, then why ain’t you helping them?
Just a thought.