Hi, everyone!
There is a toddler in my house. She is my niece, and I love her very much. She is also currently screaming the house down because she would rather do anything – anything – than go to sleep. She’s so tired at this point that all she can think to do is cry about how much she wants to read a story (she’s done that) or watch TV, or have breakfast, or literally anything but lie down and go to sleep, which would solve her problem. It is utterly illogical (and slightly deafening), but she’s two. Fair play to her.
People can be illogical, even when they’re not two years old. Who hasn’t, as a reader or viewer, experienced at least one instance of screaming “WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?” at a protagonist? The more crucial the action they need to take is, the more likely they are to do the complete opposite (because stress is a hell of a thing, and because so is the universe’s sense of humour). Sometimes, it can be enough to make you want to slam the book shut and hurl it across the room.
However, as with my niece, characters tend to pull themselves together eventually and do the sensible thing, especially if they have help. My sister, for example, is currently sitting with my niece and telling her, calmly and firmly, that it is bedtime. After forty-five minutes or so of struggle, the screaming has stopped. My niece, hopefully, is ready to sleep. And so are the rest of us.
It’s an idea for NaNoWriMo, I suppose – if your story is plodding along in an achingly predictable way and you’re not quite desperate enough to call in the legendary Travelling Shovel of Death, why not have your character face a choice between the right way and the utterly stupid way of doing things, and pick the wrong one? Nothing sets a chain of events in motion like a bad decision, after all. And if the book you’re reading has just taken an utterly disastrous turn, hang in there. Chances are, the character who just messed up will sort themselves out eventually.
Apologies for the week’s radio silence (and for this self-indulgent, I-can’t-hear-myself-think blog post) – I had a terrible cold that knocked me out completely for several days. Hopefully, normal service should resume now.
Talk to you soon!
Eleanor Musgrove 