(#7 in a series of tips from my improv class that struck me as applying to writing.)
Improv [Writing] Tip #7: Keep It Real
Don’t go for the joke. Flying bunny ninjas are less interesting than your dysfunctional family. Use what’s real.
This is an interesting one, because hey, we’re writing fiction. How real can it be? But what this means in improv and in writing is that once you’ve established your character, let what they say and do flow out of who they are.
One of the joys of reading fiction is getting to know the characters intimately. We see them in stressful or euphoric situations, we get to know their responses and their motivations, and we insist on that feeling of satisfaction from an ending to their story that feels right—not according to some external worldview of our own, but according to the characters themselves and what is true to them.
Doing it wrong is also known as bait-and-switch. In improv, it might look like this.
Malcolm (evil accent): You must pay the rent!
Me (damsel in distress): But I can’t pay the rent!
Malcolm: You must pay the rent!
Me: But I can’t pay the rent!
Malcolm (wimping out): Well, okay, we can go another month. Here are the curtains you ordered.
It might get a chuckle, but it’s really just annoying. We know the Snidely Whiplash character intimately already. We’re committed to his ne’er-do-wellness as soon as he opens his mouth. The bait-and-switch kills the scene. What’s the damsel supposed to say next? There’s nowhere to go.
I’ve been loving that my beta readers called me on this with my novel. Some from my writing group have been with me since I wrote the initial sentences over three years ago and have watched the characters shape and grow. When I get feedback like, “I don’t believe she’d do this,” or “Why isn’t he insisting she tell him?” I know I’ve got more work to do.
I have to make sure that every action and every spoken word flows out of motivations and tendencies that are already in the characters, not convenient add-ons to further my sense of the plot. But, it’s also got to be enough of a surprise that the reader feels a sense of discovery.
A Wrinkle in Time is a great example. If you’ve read it, you’ll remember that Meg has to save her little brother Charles Wallace from the overwhelmingly evil It. A sorceress mentor gives her advice: “You have something that It does not have.”
By the climax of the story, we know Meg very well. She’s impatient, immature, and at times overly emotional. But we also know she’s devoted to her family and she yearns above all else to make it whole again.
When it comes to the magical moment of discovery, that her secret weapon is not might or intelligence or beauty, but love, it makes perfect sense that she always had that within her but had underestimated its strength. She discovers the power of love and frees her brother, healing her family in the process.
It’s the simplest, most profound resolution the story could have had—and it came straight from real characters doing what was inherent to them. If the sorceress had given Meg some superhuman power or incantation or destructive weapon, she might still have freed her brother, but it wouldn’t have been as cool because it wouldn’t have come out of her character.
Check the events and actions in your story. Are they a result of external events, or do they come from the characters themselves? Your writing will be more powerful if you keep it real.
{ 3 comments }
I ditto Robyn. Great advice. My family recently watched “A Wrinkle in Time,” for movie night. I’d forgotten how cool I thought the love concept was, if I even recognized it’s coolness as a — what? — third grader reading the book. Excellent post.
You overachiever, you… I didn’t read that one until 5th grade. But then I got the gold star by suggesting it as our teachers “read aloud” for the next month. I still remember the way she pronounced “Camazotz,” as “kaa-maw-zaw-tiz.”
I think this is one of the hardest things to do with character development — allowing them to be real instead of being what we originally wanted them to be. Good reminders and advice.
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