{"id":131,"date":"2010-10-09T11:49:16","date_gmt":"2010-10-09T18:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mythmakersent.com\/blog\/?p=131"},"modified":"2010-10-26T10:11:09","modified_gmt":"2010-10-26T17:11:09","slug":"dont-make-your-characters-dumber-than-your-audience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mythmakersent.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/09\/dont-make-your-characters-dumber-than-your-audience\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Make Your Characters Dumber Than Your Audience"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb_share_1\" style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px;;width: 55px;\" name=\"fb_share\"><div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#appId=125029517579627&amp;xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/www.mythmakersent.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/09\/dont-make-your-characters-dumber-than-your-audience\/\" send=\"false\" layout=\"box_count\" width=\"55\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>There should be a universal list of no-no&#8217;s that every writer (and editor) should be forced to go through when they have completed their work. \u00a0Amongst them, in fact maybe even atop this whole list, is that your main character should <em>never <\/em>become\u00a0dumber than your audience. \u00a0Here&#8217;s what I mean:<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m in the last 150 pages of a 2500 page\u00a0fantasy\u00a0trilogy. \u00a0 I have some real pet peeves with this series (which I run into in a lot of fantasy novels) , but here&#8217;s what just happened. \u00a0Throughout this complex, intriguing, and very good story we have gotten very close to this character named Fitz. \u00a0He&#8217;s had to endure massive tragedy, massive pain and punishment, and massive discrimination. \u00a0He&#8217;s strong-willed, clever, and dedicated to his King most of all (who was overthrown by his scheming brother when the King went searching for a way to stop the raids from evil foreigners on their coasts).<\/p>\n<p>Now, nearing the end of this epic story, Fitz and a small group of others have traveled out of their land to find the good King and help him overthrow his conniving brother. \u00a0For Fitz, this also would mean that his wife, a woman whom he loves more than anything but believes him to be dead, and his daughter whom he&#8217;s never seen will be safe and that he can return to them. \u00a0We are close to these people, and we want Fitz to get back there and finally have something good in his life.<\/p>\n<p>Fitz holds The Skill (like Jedi mind tricks &#8211; only a few people hold this power and some are evil), though he was never trained in it. \u00a0There is a group who are from the conniving King, however, who have been very well trained in it. \u00a0They have been following Fitz and his group into the wilds, hoping to corrupt his mind and find a way to hurt him. \u00a0Fitz and his group members have realized that a very minuscule Skill-link has formed between Fitz and another character in his group, The Fool (he was the King&#8217;s fool &#8211; kind of a mysterious prophet). \u00a0They are all concerned that this link could be exploited by the king&#8217;s Skill users to get into Fitz&#8217;s mind without him knowing, or worse &#8211; they could take control of the Fool&#8217;s mind and get to Fitz.<\/p>\n<p>Then the conniving king recently communicated to Fitz through one of his Skill users that <em>I know where your wife and daughter are. \u00a0I will rape her, torture her, and then kill them both. \u00a0You can do nothing to stop me.<\/em> As you can imagine, this is horrendous news for Fitz. \u00a0However, he quickly realizes that there is no way any of them know where she is. \u00a0So he simply must not allow them to know.<\/p>\n<p>A few pages later, The Fool begins acting strangely. \u00a0He asks Fitz if he would be okay with him visiting his wife were Fitz to be killed. \u00a0Fitz responds that he&#8217;d rather his wife (remember, she thinks he&#8217;d dead) never know that he still lives because she&#8217;d be hurt he didn&#8217;t come to her. \u00a0But the Fool persists with his pressure and Fitz says, &#8220;Well I don&#8217;t even know where she is specifically. \u00a0Only that she&#8217;s near this town called Buck Cliffs.&#8221; \u00a0And suddenly the Fool freezes, collapses, and acts <em>exaclty<\/em> like the last two times evil King&#8217;s skill users tried to take control of him.<\/p>\n<p>What does Fitz do? \u00a0He gets angry at the Fool for acting like an idiot. \u00a0Even when the rest of his group claims that they found the Fool laying on the ground having violent dreams. \u00a0They even say, &#8220;It&#8217;s as if he&#8217;s been Skilling using.&#8221; \u00a0What does Fitz do? \u00a0He gets concerned the Fool is sick. \u00a0Eventually the Fool wakes up and Fitz has a change of heart, telling the fool he does with him to visit his wife if he were to die. \u00a0&#8220;Why on earth would you be telling me that, Fitz?&#8221; \u00a0He doesn&#8217;t remember the conversation &#8211; only as if it were a remnant of a dying dream. \u00a0What does Fitz do? \u00a0He still assumes the Fool is sick.<\/p>\n<p>So here I am. \u00a0150 pages left, and my main character has been deliberately made an idiot by the author. \u00a0Why wouldn&#8217;t they realize that the Fool is doing exactly what they&#8217;d warned themselves about for days and days on end? \u00a0They <em>would<\/em> realize it! \u00a0Instantly! \u00a0And if they couldn&#8217;t prove it, Fitz wouldn&#8217;t be able to hold himself back from using the Skill to try and kill those other guys or at least use people&#8217;s minds to try and warn his wife.\u00a0\u00a0Oh I&#8217;m certain he&#8217;ll realize that the others have now found the approximate location of his wife. \u00a0But not for a while (and the book is nearly over). \u00a0And in the meantime, I don&#8217;t believe anything any longer. \u00a0I think a hell of a lot less of the characters I should care most about.<\/p>\n<p>For the love of god, <em><strong>DO NOT ALLOW YOUR AUDIENCE TO GET AHEAD OF YOUR CHARACTERS OR YOUR STORY!!!!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"tweetthis\" style=\"text-align:left;\"><p><a class=\"tt\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/home\/?status=Don%E2%80%99t+Make+Your+Characters+Dumber+Than+Your+Audience+https:\/\/www.mythmakersent.com\/blog\/?p=131\" title=\"Post to Twitter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"nothumb\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mythmakersent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/tweet-this\/icons\/tt-twitter.png\" alt=\"Post to Twitter\" style=\"margin:0;\" \/><\/a> <a class=\"tt\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/home\/?status=Don%E2%80%99t+Make+Your+Characters+Dumber+Than+Your+Audience+https:\/\/www.mythmakersent.com\/blog\/?p=131\" title=\"Post to Twitter\">Tweet This Post<\/a><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There should be a universal list of no-no&#8217;s that every writer (and editor) should be forced to go through when they have completed their work. \u00a0Amongst them, in fact maybe even atop this whole list, is that your main character should never become\u00a0dumber than your audience. \u00a0Here&#8217;s what I mean: I&#8217;m in the last 150 &hellip; <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link block-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mythmakersent.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/09\/dont-make-your-characters-dumber-than-your-audience\/\">Continue reading &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[47,48,29],"class_list":["post-131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-screenwriting","tag-characters","tag-fantasy","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mythmakersent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mythmakersent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mythmakersent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mythmakersent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mythmakersent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.mythmakersent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175,"href":"https:\/\/www.mythmakersent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions\/175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mythmakersent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mythmakersent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mythmakersent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}