Torture 101: Peeling Back Your Character's Layers (and a little skin too).
As writers, we create our characters. We care for them. They’re a part of us. They’re bits and pieces of people we know, of people we pass on the street. We come to understand them as well as we know ourselves. Our characters carry our stories into the hearts and minds of our readers. Yet, if we don’t torture them, we aren’t doing our job. There are many ways to cause distress in a character’s life. It isn’t all about bamboo under the fingernails (although it can be). It’s ab