The Painted Veil

When anxiety grips us in its talons, there’s relief in the constants of life. The sun rises. It sets in splendor or in storm. It rises in glory or steals onto the day masked by clouds. But it is there—every morning.
 
There have always been tyrants and fools, and there have always been heroes. There will be again.
 
There have always been those writers who can explain humanity’s flaws as well as our most selfless attributes. I find comfort in reading those authors who give me insight into the cycle of human passions and the world they shape.
 
Now, I’m reading Somerset Maugham’s The Painted Veil. When I was a teenager, I read The Moon and Sixpence. It gave me an experience of the world of art, the intense passion and the suffering that plays alongside it, a counter-melody in every great endeavor. I had to acknowledge that suffering was an ingredient required in all compelling stories. Think of Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey.
 
So, if you are a writer, it may be helpful to ask yourself if each of your characters will suffer to achieve their goal. Must the suffering be taken on willingly (as with Tolkien’s brave Frodo)? If not, can the character be changed or mature in any significant way?
 
I’m going to explore those questions, and I hope to find answers for my characters. What are your thoughts?
 
(The First Vintage International Edition, February 2004, of The Painted Veil includes Maugham’s preface. He reveals that in this novel, he chose characters to fit a story he had heard while in Italy studying Dante’s Purgatorio. His usual method was to let his imagination reveal his characters’ actions. My questions now are: Do I begin with the story/plot or the characters? Is one of these methods more appropriate to a specific type of novel than the other?)

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