Zestful Blog Post #249
Our characters can open their own American Express accounts,
but they need us to give them the credit they deserve for complexity and
incomplete intelligence.
It’s impossible to know everything, so it follows
that it’s impossible to acquire and apply all knowledge and all skills in all
ways. We agree: There are ravines in everybody’s knowledge and skill set. But it
follows that there are also odd peaks. Sometimes those peaks are unexpected.
Fictional characters are the same. We learn from life.
I told my Ringling College students the following little story last
term and realized I should share it here too. I was walking through a parking
lot next to a marina and noticed a couple of guys struggling with a boat on a
trailer. Seems they were trying to secure it properly. The guys were the dirt-baggiest,
crummiest-looking, gap-toothed pair I’d seen in a while. Ragged clothes, grimy
hands, greasy hair, dangling cigarettes. The pickup and trailer were a filthy,
rusty mess, and the boat looked like it might have been seaworthy when Admiral
Farragut was firing on New Orleans.
Something slipped with a clunk, and one guy said, “Hey! You
ass, it goes the other way.”
The other guy said, “Don’t call me an ass.”
The first guy said, “I was speaking metaphorically.”
As God is my witness.
[The
steely gaze, the brass buttons… what can you shout but “Farragut!”]
Too many of us, when writing characters and dialogue,
oversimplify. A dirtbag kind of guy wouldn’t know the word ‘metaphorical’, let
alone use it properly in a sentence, right? Yeah no, wrong. He certainly might.
He might not know who Admiral Farragut was; then again he might. He might be
able to calculate pinochle scores in his head, but he might waste all his money
on lottery tickets. But if he does, he might not be able to bear his kids not
having shoes that fit, so he starts dealing a little meth on the side, so they
can wear decent sneakers. Who knows? Maybe he’s going to night school for
electronics.
By the same token, a character who is smart and accomplished
might not be able to chop onions properly. Might borrow money at rates only a
fool would agree to. Might get a pilot’s license, then decide to keep going in
the fog at low altitude because it’s only a little ways to the airstrip. Might insist
on getting a prescription for antibiotics when sick with the flu.
A while back, I encountered disagreement from some writing
friends as to whether a six-year-old boy would know and use the word ‘masculine’.
There’s no hard rule, because it depends! If he’s heard it at home or
somewhere, yeah, he certainly could know and use the word. If not, not.
Grab the freedom to let your characters be as complex and
contradictory as the people you meet in life. Therein lies authenticity.
What are your experiences with this subject? To post, click
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ReplyDeleteShould we, as writers, always let our characters be stereotypes? Or can they show flashes of personality that makes them a little more, a little different, a little less than a stereotype. The characters I write about always seem to do what I thought they should do - and for the most part, the way my readers would expect them. But the people I meet in everyday life are unknowns to me. I can't say how they might react to a situation or what they might know until they show me. My characters need to show me who they are. But now, having read this blog, I think they might be more willing to do the unexpected.
That's a good insight re: stereotypes, Dave. It's fun to buck expectations!
DeleteThis topic reminds me of a scene in the movie Swingers. Favreau's character asks the Vegas diner waitress if he can have his omelet in "the age of enlightenment" because the menu says "Breakfast Served Anytime". He immediately feels that he has offended her because how would a diner waitress get this obscure French philosophical reference? When she walks by again and he tries to get her attention, she says "hang on, Voltaire." It makes for such a classic moment.
ReplyDeleteExactly. That's the very same theme, or element of human interaction. Great to see you here, honey!
DeleteThis is probably one of the best posts I have read in a while. I am about to take my first run at my novel. I have been wanting to find a unique detail. Nothing major, just something that would make my main character unique and stand out from the crowd of the other detectives in the genre.
ReplyDeleteSo reading this is really giving me food for thought. You are right, our characters need to be as complex and contradictory as we can make them!
Ingrid, yeah, go for it! You're in a good place with this. Glad the post helped a bit.
Delete