Whenever something surprising happens, it's good to
have a reaction shot of a character saying, "Wow, what
a surprise!" I don't mean you should milk the moment in a
melodramatic way; I just want characters to react in a
manner that shows they know something unusual has happened.
| When a surprise happens within the story, the characters should acknowledge they're surprised. |
You may think this is obvious; but I've read story after story where bizarre things start happening and nobody seems to clue in. I recently read the first draft of a story where a slightly non-human person materialized out of nowhere inside a sealed room in the middle of a highly secure installation...and people immediately concluded he was a terrorist, case closed. Argh! All I wanted was for someone to say, "This looks really weird, but there's got to be a rational explanation." That would have made me happy. It would have shown that the characters had enough brains to see what was right in front of their eyes. When they don't acknowledge the strangeness, the characters just look like idiots. (Since it was only a first draft, and since I howled to the author in outrage, I trust the scene has now been revised.)
Aren't you frustrated with stories where a body is found drained of blood and nobody even mentions vampires? I'd be perfectly happy if one of the cops says, "Maybe it's a vampire," and another cop says, "Maybe it's a whacko who thinks he's a vampire." That's all I need—the story has acknowledged what is patently obvious to the reader (the vampire-like nature of the crime). The police have come up with a sensible theory: a lunatic who think he's a vamp. They're probably wrong (in a science fiction or fantasy story, it probably is a vampire), but at least we don't think they're morons for failing to see the obvious.
I despise stories where people don't acknowledge
when something is weird. I despise stories where people
blame "terrorists" or "kids" for actions that a two-year-
old can see must have been done by aliens, or time
travelers, or
whatever. It doesn't take much to please me—I'm
satisfied if someone says, "Okay, this looks like
it
was done by aliens, but there's got to be a rational
explanation." What I hate is when nobody has the sense to
say
what the readers immediately say to themselves. That makes
me lose respect for the characters and the writer.
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Copyright © 2001, James Alan Gardner