Unreasonable to Expect Reasonable

October 8, 2007 in Writing Tips | 3 comments

One of the hardest things I have yet to overcome in my own fiction writing is that I invariably portray all my characters as reasonable people. Even those who are evil, are at least thoughtfully evil.

This stems directly from my own nativity.  I am constantly amazed that people can be so totally unreasonable.  It shocks me every time.

Does that make me unreasonable to expect them to be?

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  1. Lycanthrope on October 10, 2007 at 5:31 am

    I don’t see how it should. I’d think that “reasonable” characters would make stories much more interesting. After all, nothing is as entertaining as when an evil character becomes understandably evil and their motivation becomes something that the reader cheers on – especially when there’s the moral ambiguity of, “Which one’s right“

  2. jerry on October 10, 2007 at 7:14 am

    Actually I am afraid if all the characters are reasonable, and none of them do anything stupid — it ends up being less interesting. And less realistic.

    Oh, if only everyone were reasonable. :-P

  3. Lycanthrope on October 10, 2007 at 12:34 pm

    Hmm… good point… I suppose it requires some form of intelligence to plot a valid path of understanding for an unreasonable character. I’m not sure I have the capacity to place myself in the shoes of an unreasonable character, although, I suppose to an extent I’m an unreasonable person, so it might not be that difficult. But then, how does one sit down and say to oneself, “I’m going to make a stupid character” and pull through without being biased? Just let it grow and develop, I guess…

    Then again, think of the most unreasonable person you’ve ever met/known and use fragments of their mindsets/personalities as reference? I’m not sure I’d even know where to start. That’s why YOU’RE the writer :P