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Free Stories I, Sherwood Resurrection Train
Posted by storymonger on Jun 16, 2014 in Characters , Writing | 6 comments
Meet Clint Cannon. He’s a former secret service agent who is now a bounty hunter and private detective. He’s a skilled sniper and a karate blackbelt with the rugged good looks of an Abercrombie model and an IQ to match Steven Hawking.
One evening, Clint gets a phone call from an untraceable number.
“Come to the abandoned train station at midnight,” says a muffled voice. “I know something about that kidnapping case you’ve been on for the last week. Come alone and unarmed.”
The caller hangs up before Clint can ask any other questions.
Our hero is elated. This could be the breakthrough he needs. Not to mention the abandoned train station is really nice this time of year. Whistling a happy tune, he leaves his weapons at home and drives out to meet Mr. Shady without telling anybody where he’s going.
Since you are all people of great taste and discernment, you are all engaging in various noises of disgust right now. That’s good.
Because that little thing I just did is one of the very quickest ways to lose a reader’s interest. You have a character who is advertised as super smart and competant, and then that character goes and does something totally, infuriatingly moronic. (Yes, Hardy boys, I’m looking at you.)
But on the other hand, smart people are not immune to stupidity. And the truth is, sometimes you need your smart guy to make a dumb move for the sake of story.
Here are a few rules for having smart characters do dumb things… without causing your readers to curse your name.
I’m a fan of the character who knows he’s about to do something stupid, but does it anyway because he fears the consequences of not doing the thing more than the consequences of doing it.
Maybe it’s Clint’s own daughter who has been kidnapped. He’s been hitting nothing but dead ends, and then gets the mysterious call. We’re going to understand a lot more when he drives out to that train station, because he’s desperate.
In this case, make sure that the stupid decision is the only option, and that there aren’t any better ones lying around in plain sight. A drowning man doesn’t clutch at a straw when there’s a perfectly serviceable pool noodle floating right next to him.
If Clint is normally a thoughtful guy who carefully considers every move beforehand, we’re going to be really skeptical when he jumps into his BMW and drives off to that train station.
However, if we know that he is a reckless, impulsive character who dives into danger headlong—and we’ve already seen him do it before now—we’ll have a lot more grace. Especially if he’s a little arrogant and believes himself perfectly capable of handling the situation on his own if it turns ugly.
Another good reason for a smart character to do something stupid is when they are missing a vital piece of info that would make them realize just how stupid it really is.
Let’s say that instead of a phone call, Clint gets an email from his buddy Brad, who wants to show him something he found at the old train station. What Clint hasn’t been told yet is that Brad went missing in his home this morning, and bloodstains were found on the carpet.
Sometimes, having a character do something stupid is just a lazy way to get them from point A to point B. Before you give your character a Moron Moment, ask yourself if it’s really needed. Does it reveal an important aspect of this character in a way you couldn’t do otherwise? Does it move the plot forward in the best way possible?
If not, try stepping back and finding a better way to get to point B.
Smart people do dumb things sometimes. Your characters should be no exception. Still, consider carefully, and be sure that their dumb moments make sense in the context of the story.
Also, I recommend staying away from the anonymous phone call/abandoned train station scenario. The Hardy Boys already covered that one… a lot.
photo credit: Jack Zalium via photopin cc
K.M. Weiland June 16, 2014 Totally agree with this. The truth is characters *need* to do stupid things. Most of the time, if they did the absolute, smartest thing right away, there would be no story. Stories are about people making mistakes, and many of those mistakes are the result of stupidity, to one degree or another. But, as you’ve pointed out, readers have to believe they’d be just as stupid as the character, were they faced with the same choices, if they were in the same situation. Otherwise, they’re gone. Reply storymonger June 17, 2014 Exactly! Kind of a delicate balancing act. Reply
Totally agree with this. The truth is characters *need* to do stupid things. Most of the time, if they did the absolute, smartest thing right away, there would be no story. Stories are about people making mistakes, and many of those mistakes are the result of stupidity, to one degree or another. But, as you’ve pointed out, readers have to believe they’d be just as stupid as the character, were they faced with the same choices, if they were in the same situation. Otherwise, they’re gone.
storymonger June 17, 2014 Exactly! Kind of a delicate balancing act. Reply
Exactly! Kind of a delicate balancing act.
Bluebelle June 16, 2014 Great post, Braden! You made some awesome points, and I love the way you word things. Like this, for example: “I’m a fan of the character who knows he’s about to do something stupid, but does it anyway because he fears the consequences of not doing the thing more than the consequences of doing it.” And “Moron Moment.” *grin* Besides, you mentioned the Hardy Boys – how could this post get any better? Seriously, though, you’re right on recognizing that humans make mistakes, and that our characters are supposed to be human (usually…) But that doesn’t mean we have to throw them into stupidity constantly, either. Reply storymonger June 17, 2014 Heh, thanks! I sorta like words, so. Reply
Great post, Braden! You made some awesome points, and I love the way you word things. Like this, for example: “I’m a fan of the character who knows he’s about to do something stupid, but does it anyway because he fears the consequences of not doing the thing more than the consequences of doing it.” And “Moron Moment.” *grin* Besides, you mentioned the Hardy Boys – how could this post get any better?
Seriously, though, you’re right on recognizing that humans make mistakes, and that our characters are supposed to be human (usually…) But that doesn’t mean we have to throw them into stupidity constantly, either.
storymonger June 17, 2014 Heh, thanks! I sorta like words, so. Reply
Heh, thanks! I sorta like words, so.
Dani June 17, 2014 Great post, Braden! For the most part, I don’t mind characters doing stupid things, so long as it’s not Hardy Boy stupid. What gets me is when an author over-glorifies their characters’ good qualities while their character simultaneously falls short of these glorified qualities. Say the author describes their character as an amazing poet and then you read the character’s poetry…and it’s really corny and not very impressive. Sometimes authors set up readers too much when in reality they could simply let their characters speak for themselves and leave their own impressions. I don’t mind characters who write corny poems, but when that character is supposed to be Shakespeare incarnate and they obviously fall short of that, the believeability of the entire story plummets. Reply
Great post, Braden! For the most part, I don’t mind characters doing stupid things, so long as it’s not Hardy Boy stupid. What gets me is when an author over-glorifies their characters’ good qualities while their character simultaneously falls short of these glorified qualities. Say the author describes their character as an amazing poet and then you read the character’s poetry…and it’s really corny and not very impressive. Sometimes authors set up readers too much when in reality they could simply let their characters speak for themselves and leave their own impressions. I don’t mind characters who write corny poems, but when that character is supposed to be Shakespeare incarnate and they obviously fall short of that, the believeability of the entire story plummets.
Emmarayn Redding June 25, 2014 Good post. It drives me insane when characters do dumb things, and yet at the same time, I do see why it is necessary for them to do so at some times. This post illustrated it brilliantly. I especially liked that you pointed out that smart people do stupid things sometimes. I mean, I’m a reasonably ingenious person, but I do stupid, ditzy stuff all the time! Okay, I’m not ingenious. That was a joke. But I do like to think of myself as being moderately intelligent and intellectual. Ironically, I think sometimes it’s the particularly smart characters that struggle with the simplest things. Take Sherlock Holmes, for instance. He had the greatest mind in detective history, and yet he was unaware that the earth revolved around the sun. It’s almost as if geniuses are concentrating so hard on being geniuses that they have no time for social interaction and common sense. @_@ I never read the Hardy Boys series, but I was very fond of Nancy Drew. She suffered from the same thing. It seemed like in every book she was being kidnapped because of some silly mistake that she should have known better than to make. Too bad. With great power comes great dunce-ability. Reply
Good post. It drives me insane when characters do dumb things, and yet at the same time, I do see why it is necessary for them to do so at some times. This post illustrated it brilliantly. I especially liked that you pointed out that smart people do stupid things sometimes. I mean, I’m a reasonably ingenious person, but I do stupid, ditzy stuff all the time! Okay, I’m not ingenious. That was a joke. But I do like to think of myself as being moderately intelligent and intellectual.
Ironically, I think sometimes it’s the particularly smart characters that struggle with the simplest things. Take Sherlock Holmes, for instance. He had the greatest mind in detective history, and yet he was unaware that the earth revolved around the sun. It’s almost as if geniuses are concentrating so hard on being geniuses that they have no time for social interaction and common sense. @_@
I never read the Hardy Boys series, but I was very fond of Nancy Drew. She suffered from the same thing. It seemed like in every book she was being kidnapped because of some silly mistake that she should have known better than to make. Too bad. With great power comes great dunce-ability.
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