Out of character…
All elements of storytelling are important, but (to echo Orwell), some are more important than others: plot, themes, characterization, settings, dialogue, narrative, and so forth all need careful attention, but plot is the most important, then characterization. Many authors put characterization on an equal pedestal with plot, though. It takes two to tango, of course, and the marriage of plot with characterization is also important.
Many writers, fiction writers and screenwriters, make mistakes in characterization. Screenwriters are often more guilty of that. Here’s an example (and then I’ll leave the realm of TV and movie land): I watch Magnum occasionally (in its new reincarnation), when my eyes get tired from reading, although its time slot flops around like jello. The entire multi-episode (why do screenwriters want to make crime dramas into soap operas?) substory of Higgins’s forgetting to renew her visa was one big screenwriting mistake (yes, I edit TV shows as I watch!). For those who don’t watch the series (in its new reincarnation), Higgie is a cerebral ex-MI6 agent who acts as the adult in comparison to the more immature and devil-may-care Magnum, so this visa business is completely out of character. And there’s no intentional shock value here to make a mystery-style twist—like I said, it’s just a terrible mistake in screenwriting. In other words, it’s not showing Higgie as more human; it’s just out of character. (With COVID going on, that has to be your movie-review fix from this blog for a while!)
I’ve seen many authors mangle characterization with abrupt changes of point of view (head-hopping), even changes from paragraph to paragraph. That’s most obnoxious when character X had thoughts in one paragraph and Y has them in another (which is why it’s called head-hopping). Even when the point of view (POV) is constant during a section or chapter, as required, there can be changes in POV in one character. This can be intentional, of course—character X isn’t quite the upstanding gentleman the reader thought he was, as the mystery’s plot moves forward—and that’s okay. But in can be damaging to the story when it’s not. The reader has developed an image of a character and his behavior as the prose goes along, and then that character does something completely out of character (like Higgie), showing lack of consistency and story-building skills on the part of the author.
As they develop characters, authors must ensure that each character doesn’t get out of character…unless discovering that is part of the plot. In other words, they shouldn’t create character traits and then contradict them. They should let the characters fill the plot in a consistent, logical fashion, letting the two grow together. An out-of-character action isn’t a shock a reader needs, even if the story is a mystery. The reader can slowly discover the peccadillos of a character ahead of the detective, after all, playing armchair-sleuth. An out-of-character reading experience in the extreme would be like Poirot suddenly becoming a murderer. That’s not a twist; it’s just sloppy writing!
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Comments are always welcome!
The “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” Series. Do you want to read some mystery/thriller novels that motivate you to keep turning the pages? Wags at Scotland Yard call Esther Brookstone Miss Marple and Bastiann van Coevorden, her beau, Hercule Poirot, but their adventures are very twenty-first century. In Rembrandt’s Angel, Esther obsesses with recovering a painting stolen by the Nazis in WWII. In Son of Thunder, she obsesses with finding the tomb of St. John the Divine. Both obsessions lead her and Bastiann into dangerous situations. Available in print format from your favorite local bookstore, Amazon, and the publisher, Penmore Press; and in ebook format from Amazon and Smashwords and all the latter’s affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) and lending and library services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker&Thomas, Gardners, etc.). A third novel featuring this crime-fighting duo is in the works.
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
