*Unless you have a darn good plot reason, and even then be very, very careful and really see if it is absolutely necessary.
Oh look. Another fiction character who suddenly acts out of character, or who abruptly loses 45 IQ points for reasons known only to the author. No good reason is given, and the character never recovers his/her/its good sense or aplomb. The author broke the character, in this case with a hit from the Idiot Ball. The book is closed, the DVD is stopped, and that’s the end of that.
Breaking a character in this case doesn’t mean pushing the character to the break point so he or she can survive, learn, and rebuild to be a better person. Sometimes you have to do that, or have to refer to that having happened in the past, which is why the character is the way he is today. But the character is still true to himself, and does what the reader expects him to do, OR the reader understands why he now responds differently to something.
No, I’m referring to the instances where the author says, “Oh, well, the plot needs Jill to go exploring this cave on her own, so her flashlight can die and she gets lost and finds the Horrible Thing of DOOOOOMMM. And then the others go after her, and …” Now, readers know that Jill wouldn’t do anything like that, because the author established Jill as a common-sense sort with experience in spelunking, and who has already said, “No, use the buddy system, no, don’t go into unknown caves on your own,” and enforced that on another character. But the author has A Plot that Must Be Followed, and so he breaks the character and Jill suddenly does something totally rash, stupid, and wrong. For no good reason but to move the plot.
Or Jerry has an affair with a coworker, or the cute neighbor lady, because the author decides that the story needs more tension and sex is one way to do it. And readers slam the book shut because in the past three stories, Jerry was faithful to his fiancee, then wife, and avoided any situation that might put him in a compromising position or strong temptation, For Reasons. The author has just broken faith with his readers, and they probably won’t forgive him. Especially if there’s no foreshadowing, no hint of a possible reason for the character doing something totally out of character.
If you foreshadow things, if you give readers lots and lots of hints that there might be a character-reasonable cause for the impending “What the heck did she just do?!?”, then you might get away with it. But try to find another way to work the plot without breaking the character even so. Some readers won’t forgive you, even if you give enough hints and foreshadowing. (Think the slowly building dissonant music in movies that hints of impending Something.)
To mangle an ad slogan: Just Don’t Do It.
Mad Genius Club 
19 responses to “Breaking a Character: Don’t Do It*”
Yep. I can’t stand it when others break the character… or when I do. Which is usually A Clue that I need to deal with my own mental health with quite some urgency, because the place that generates creativity is broken. (My resilient, cheerful character slid into being a ball of depressed anxiety? Oh, why, yes, I *do* need to quit reading the news, get more sunlight, and more sleep.)
I blame Janet Evanovich. “If she can be a huge Best Seller with an absolute dumb ditz Main Character . . .” and suddenly the clever character you’v followed for several books appears to have suffered a major brain injury unnoticed since the last book . . .
It could be. I never got into her books. The writing style didn’t catch me.
“Oh look. Another fiction character who suddenly acts out of character…”
Yeah. oh, M G. The hallmark of writing these days, it seems to me. Characters suddenly doing things as a plot device.
I will tell you what, my characters laugh when I think up a plot point. They sit there and say “I would never do that, you are dumb.”
Functionally, in the story, characters are people with free will. You can change the circumstances abruptly (fire, flood, insurrection, aliens) but you can’t change the -character- because people don’t change like that. They’re not smart one minute and stupid the next, then suddenly smart again because it is convenient to the plot.
I sometimes wonder if this is an artifact of socialism, because they do it all the time. To a socialist the individuals are interchangeable, they don’t matter. Only “The People” matter, or the “Greater Good” or whatever glitchy wetware they’ve been programmed with this week. To a socialist it would not seem unreasonable for the saintly character to suddenly abandon the beloved [insert protected group here] character if said abandonment/treachery/immoral act was “For The Greater Good!” all caps.
Which is why I don’t read their stuff anymore.
It could well be. It could also be defaulting to the quickest, easiest (for the author) solution. And if one or two popular authors get away with it, or someone in a movie or TV gets away with it, well …
That is a good point. The quick, easy solution is the one you reach for when there is pressure to get the “product” out the door.
As Harlan Ellison put it in one of his “Glass Teat” books, Hollywood “doesn’t care if it’s crap as long as it’s Wednesday.”
You know I’ve always thought it is more terrifying if the characters act sensibly, bring batteries, using the buddy system, and it *still* goes sideways.
This is my thinking as well. All the i’s dotted, all the t’s crossed, red alert engaged, and then it hits the fan anyway. That’s a good story.
This! That’s the way to amp up the tension!
…Problem is, it requires the writer to think things through and be very creative. So… yeah, I can see people fumbling for anything easier.
I know, but there is nothing quite like the perspective character looking one way for just a moment, and turning back to find their buddy is just *gone*
This is one of the reasons I still think Predator is an awesome movie.
…Also Tremors.
From current WIP:
“Let us shelve this conversation for the moment,” said Second Eldest as they arrived at the coffee shop. “We shall turn our attention to why Jimmy Carlson is worthy of praise from big, important me.”
“That’s a good idea,” agreed Beatrice, grinning at him and giving him another poke with her elbow to reset his posture. “Maybe we can get around to why he deserves a proper robot girlfriend like me.”
Several giggling robots pushed through the door ahead of them, partly to be cheeky and partly to further secure the already secure premises, on the grounds that nothing is ever perfect. Beatrice went in first and held the interior door for him. Second Eldest kept her grip on his arm as she followed him across the threshold.
Then she was looking at Beatrice with no Jimmy between them. He had stepped through the door and gone somewhere else. “Well.” Second Eldest held up the stump of her arm. It was cut clean and just beginning to bleed, the rest of it presumably still holding him, wherever he had gone. “It’s on now.”
Oooh……. gimme. (Title at least, for whenever?)
~:D
Working title, “Fortress of Niflheim.” Jimmy got dumped somewhere interesting, poor lad.
Thanks!. Please add me to whatever list you maintain for probable buyers when it’s out.
Karen.L.Myers@usa.net
Yes, but it’s harder to set up.
I’m writing a competent MC and I have to make sure that when I need things to go wrong-
1-I’ve set everything up beforehand
2-There’s a good solution somewhere
3-HIs IQ remains unchanged, and
4-The “way out” makes good sense, both plot and story wise.
It’s frustrating to work with, but I’ve thrown many books that I’ve liked before that did a just because bit that it isn’t funny.
Of course, a non-POV character can suddenly act “out of character” but then the POV character and any friends should be appropriately baffled.