“Wistful regrets” produce winning characterizations

In Barbara Kingsolver’s award-winning Demon Copperfield the character tells us his regrets immediately, including being born under the caul. As the novel moves along, the boy expresses other regrets.

In Richard Osman’s popular mystery, The Thursday Murder Club, residents at a retirement village and a police officer let readers into their minds and hearts by revealing their regrets in life.

In both cases, without us knowing the characters’ regrets those novels would feel hollow or thin. The plots would have sagged. Regrets are the impetus for CHANGE and ACTION in those characters’ lives.

For a motion picture example, consider The Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland. After Dorothy lands in Oz, she has many regrets along the way about things she’s said and done that may have harmed others in Oz or back home. Without her regrets, the storyline would lack potency.

Humans often have regrets. A talented writer brings those experiences into the storytelling.

What do your characters regret? Why?

In my Fudge Shop Mystery Series the character of Ava Oosterling has many regrets—failing a job, experiencing a one-month marriage, and living far away from her best friend and family in Door County, Wisconsin, for ten years. She regrets her impulsive nature bringing trouble. She’s a character always in search of her true and better self.

Is a “wistful regret” the same as the “oh-woe-is-me” pity party? No! A meaningful regret is instead an excellent backstory element. A wistful regret is connected solidly to the changes your character needs to make.

A “wistful regret” is not always based on mistakes. It can be about remembering a missed opportunity long ago or yesterday.

What matters is the regret fuels change NOW in your story. Being “wistful” is not so much melancholy as a yearning to do better and acting on that feeling. Being wistful means wishing.

A regret means the character acknowledges a mistake, or an embarrassment, or a road not taken. A regret can be funny or sad, happy or tragic. It’s your call.

The “wistful regret” is powerful, weighty stuff, and wears on a character; it may take a few chapters or scenes to be acted upon or resolved.

Wistful regrets create the spark for a character’s energy that enables meaningful change through actions or otherwise. That change in turn creates an effective story.

For deeper characterizations, regrets should plague your protagonist (and/or antagonist) at least a little bit. Mentioning the regret only once in a 300-page manuscript usually isn’t enough. Try the “Rule of 3” for places the regret can show up and help fuel decisions and action.  A “Midpoint Crisis” is a good place to consider bringing up regrets.

If your storytelling isn’t catching fire with readers such as critique partners or agents or producers, try infusing your opening pages with a “wistful regret.”

You won’t regret it.