Mistakes in
writing. Made them and some I didn’t
know I did, but today, I am posting about the mistakes our characters make or
letting our characters make. I can’t
remember where I found it, but someone wrote don’t ‘parent’ your YA
characters. As a parent, I need to allow
my kids to fail so they learn from their mistakes. In my crazy mind, my characters are like my
kids, so the same theory applies to them, and like my kids, some misbehave more
than others (more about that in a minute.)
Think back to many YA characters.
Where were the parents? Would you
let your kids get away with many of the ‘adventures’ those kids got into? You wouldn’t have much of a story if your characters
did what they were supposed to do. My
husband said he could never be a writer because he couldn’t imagine his
characters to doing stupid stuff.
So
what is a writer to do? Let your
characters fail, even if it breaks your heart to see them hurt. We have all screamed at the TV, “Why did you
do that!?” Use those emotions you feel
toward your characters’ feelings. There’s that GMC (goals, motivation, and
conflict) rearing its ugly head. It is
times like this that I prefer mystery writing over romance writing. I want my characters to be in love, not
fighting or apart because of some world war, but that stuff really
happens/happened, so you have to do it.
Back
to my characters misbehaving. Reminds me
of the B-17 ‘Ain’t Miss Behaven’ (there were several ‘Ain’t Miss Behavens’ by
the way). It’s funny to me how characters can take on lives of their own. Not parenting them can be rewarding. They know better than us, sometimes, but then
as parents, I mean writers, we have to interfere when things get really out of control
and nudge them in the right direction. I
have one pilot (not my hero) that’s so naughty, he corrupted my heroine and I
had to rewrite an entire chapter and one scene.
I know what you’re thinking. That
corruption could be good story telling, but no, they both carried on completely
out of character. Okay, maybe my pilot
acted like he feels (he can’t help it, he’s wicked that way), but not my
heroine.
That’s
the joy of storytelling, unlike real life, even if our characters do major
mistakes, they get giant do-overs. In
the end, it all works out for our characters.
At least, I hope it does. Torture
your characters, but for the sake of my heart, give me a happy ending.
**side note – The B-17 ‘Ain’t Miss Behaven’ of the
452nd bomber group was named by the pilot Oliver Wright, because of
his newly marital status just before the crew went to England.**
