Lack of a Reaction: When Questions Go Unanswered

**Scroll down for an important exciting announcement! 8D**

Now, on to the post:

Supernatural Boy: “I don’t have much time to explain, but long story short, you’ve just been sucked into another dimension and are actually our long-lost princess. You’ll also develop astonishing powers you’ve never even hinted at possessing before in about fifteen seconds, after we’re attacked by the witch trying to steal your throne.”

                Female Main Character: “Okay. Let’s do this.”

                See any problems here?

                Yes, there are a few, but the one I’m going to focus on is our FMC’s reaction to the news that her life has just gotten a whole lot more complicated.

                Specifically, I’m going to focus on her lack of reaction. There’s no frantic questions, no denial, no burst of laughter, and no sarcastic comments regarding the sudden need for an insane asylum… She just accepts it. And the story moves on. And any questions the reader has – which, by the way, should be more or less the same questions this MC would have – are completely and totally ignored.

                We do not want to ignore our reader, folks. Not once you start preparing your book for others to read. We have the answers all in our heads. Our readers, and often our characters do not.

                A show I rather like kind of inspired this post, because I see the writers ignoring readers’ questions on a regular basis. Granted, there’s only so much you can fit in a 30-minute episode, but isn’t that what cliff-hangers are for?

                Take for example one episode in particular. Up until that episode, our MC was an amnesiac, and his whole ‘thing’ was trying to find out his past, where he’d come from, why he had the abilities he did…

                And then suddenly, in this episode, his long-lost brother appears! His bro should have all the answers! He can finally clue the readers in on what’s going on! Finally, things will start to make sense!

                Except they didn’t. Partially because his long-lost brother is a quirky, crazy guy, a bit out of touch with reality, but mostly because our main character didn’t even bother to ask the questions in the first place. This is his chance to find out everything, and he doesn’t seem that concerned about it. There wasn’t a single question about his past, or his life before amnesia. At the start of the next episode, it was like his brother had always been around. Still no answered questions.

                Which left me, the viewer, wondering two things.

o   What is he waiting for? This is his chance, so why isn’t he taking it?

o   Now that he potentially has all the answers… Where are they taking this character, and this plot, and this series?

                It also made me start to think, “Is this show really as fantastic as I thought at first?”

                And this is not something we want our readers to be thinking about our books.

                Like I said, there’s only so much the writers of that show could fit into one episode. Similarly, there’s only so much we can fit into a novel, or a chapter, or a scene. If our characters are right in the middle of a chaotic battle, they’re not going to have time to sit down and talk things out right away.

                But that shouldn’t stop the questions from eating away at our main character. It shouldn’t stop them from asking those questions at the earliest opportunity, and it shouldn’t stop them from demanding answers. It shouldn’t keep our characters removed from all the emotion they should be feeling after a major development…

                Because if the emotions and questions in our reader’s mind keep prying them away from our character’s thoughts, things won’t match up. Our reader will feel disconnected, and frustrated, and they might even feel like closing the book entirely.

                The show I’m referring to, I think, has been trying very hard to keep things light. Comedic. ‘Fun’. Which is good, I suppose, except I feel like they’re sacrificing all the messy, emotional meat of the character reactions that I love. The questions are still roaring through my head, episodes later, as a new huge event was just brushed over with little fanfare. The long-lost brother is still there, but I’m no longer sure why he matters, or if he matters, or if our main character’s history was ever really important (even though that was the whole starting premise of the show).

                I’m not matching up with the characters. They, and the plot of the show, don’t feel as real to me as they once did.

                And if your characters or plot don’t feel real… Then it’s just a show. Or just a book.

                I can turn off a show. I can close a book.

                Appropriate reactions aren’t just a matter of scenes and chapters. They’re a matter of keeping your characters believable. And they’re a matter of making your story more than ‘just’ a book.

                Have you ever read a book or watched a show that skimmed over extremely important events? Have your characters ever inexplicably accepted something impossible? What do you think the balance is between addressing questions, and getting overloaded with them?

And perhaps a better question, have you figured out yet that I get really excited about Character Reactions?

Now...

Announcement Time! 8D

I'm proud to announce that I shall henceforth be contributing to a new collaborative writing blog, begun by myself and three amazing friends from Young Writers Society.

Scratchlings is now officially in business.

Feel free to check it out. :)

Stay in Character: How to Keep Your Characters' Reactions Believable

              “If your Big Twist involves the happy little neighbor girl revealing her identity as the chainsaw-toting serial killer, then you’d better have planted some of those hints alluding to the darker side of her character. There’s nothing more frustrating than having a character do something so outrageously not them that you start to question if the author knows their character as well as you do.”

                Those were my thoughts in the last tip regarding The Twist in an earlier post. As I wrote it, I started to think maybe that needed some elaboration.

                It might sound simple at first. There are certain actions that would not be believable coming from a certain character. A sickly boy scared to leave his house might not be the right person to lead a rebellion against a cruel and vicious tyrant. Likewise, a cruel and vicious tyrant probably wouldn’t call off an invasion the moment a hero points out an orphanage full of innocent children sitting right in the war machine’s path.

                But there’s a difference between unbelievable actions and actions that point to character development.

                The key is to take an unbelievable action and make it believable, through the use of backstory, a character’s thought processes, and outside influences that give your character no choice but to act the way they do.

                Backstory: Let’s go back to our cruel and vicious tyrant. He’s a monster. Murderer of thousands, eats fluffy puppies for breakfast without a second thought, he is One Bad Dude. Obviously, he’s not going to lose much sleep over a hut full of lice-ridden orphans.

                But – to use one of the clichéd examples that are quickly becoming commonplace in these posts, for simplicity’s sake – what if our tyrant was an orphan himself? What if the kindly old owner of an orphanage he grew up in was the only person who ever showed him any kindness, and their murder was the tragic event that put him onto the path of violence in the first place?

                What if the orphanage in the path of his war machine was the same orphanage he once grew up in? The last remainder of all his deceased caretaker’s hard work over the years…

                Suddenly a desire to spare that little hut isn’t so unlikely now, is it?

                Certain events in the past shape the character of our characters (XD). I used Darth Vader as an example in the last post, so I’ll continue with that now. Think about what made him who he was. His mother killed, his occupation telling him that he can’t be with his wife, his whole world falling apart… It took a lot to bring him from a sweet little boy into a man in a black mask.

                But knowing what we know about his history, and the events that have shaped him, it’s not so hard to believe that he could change his ways at the last moment and sacrifice himself to save Luke.

                What makes it more believable? Backstory!

                Thought Processes: Logic can be a funny thing. What makes sense to one person might seem outrageous to another. This, my friends, is what allows stupid people to do stupid things. It makes sense to them, after all. Differences in the way people think is also what leads to comedy – unexpected outcomes.

                Take two drastically different characters, and put them in front of a stack of boxes. At the top is the Prize. The trophy. The thing they want most in all the world. One character will get all excited and gather up everything they can find, building their own teetering tower of possessions to try and reach their greatest desire…

                The other will tip over the whole stack and pick the prize up off the ground.

                One character thinks ‘Fight’. The other thinks ‘Flight.’ One character thinks optimistically, with confidence of success in everything they do. The other thinks pessimistically, and always takes the cautious path.

                With every choice put in front of your character, think about the way they think. If they’re outnumbered and outmatched, will they fight anyway, or surrender and plot for a later escape? Would they rather do things the easy way or the hard way? The simple way, or the complicated way? The efficient way, or the fun way?

                As a bonus, knowing how your character will react in a given situation will help you to get to know them in all other ways that help you make your characters deep, and believable, and real to a reader.

                Outside Influences: Sometimes unlikely people are put in unlikely situations… Mostly for the sake of comedy. A genetically modified superspy is forced to attend normal high school, or a sniveling little scaredy-cat is forced to save the world.

                What do both of these examples have in common? The word forced.

                Take away all your character’s options. Either they act, or they die. Period.

                Let’s bring back that sickly boy, who’s scared to step outside his front door. In his mind, war has nothing to do with him. He’d rather sit inside and fold his socks than go face our evil tyrant, and the thought of a wielding a weapon is enough to make him break out in hives.

                But if he lives in the orphanage that’s about to be crushed under the tyrant’s war machine… Well then, that changes things. His socks are in danger! Along with all the younger kids, and the people who’ve cared for him his whole life. And maybe his bold, adrenaline-junkie girlfriend, who’s taking up a weapon before they’ve even established the risks.

                If he wants to keep his girlfriend safe, or if he wants to keep her from going in the first place, then he’ll have to go, won’t he?

                Did Frodo have any choice besides bringing the ring to Mordor? Did Harry Potter have any choice but to fight against Voldemort and step into the role everyone expected him to take? Did Marlin have any choice but to leave his safe little home and go after his son Nemo?

                Eliminate all choices but two. Action, and the Unthinkable.

                In the words of Sherlock Holmes, “When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

                Eliminate the Unthinkable, and whatever remains, however improbable, is the action your character must take.

                Know your characters. Know what they will do, and what they won’t do. Figure out what’s necessary to make them do something. Keep their actions believable, and you’ll save your readers a whole lot of frustration.

                What’s the most unbelievable thing one of your characters has ever done? Now what made them willing to do it?

                If you don’t have an answer, maybe it’s time to find one.

(Also, a reminder! The 8th was the first anniversary of the beginning of this blog, and in honor of that, I'm running a contest where if you comment on this post, you could win your choice of either a review for some of your writing or a sketch. More details in the aforementioned post. I was going to have it be a drawing... But honestly I'm thinking about giving everyone who comments either a review or a sketch, since the grand total so far is... Well... Two. XD We shall see. Thanks for reading!)