Life is Always More Complicated
It is tempting to describe daily life events using simple explanations. Sally entered the conference room and yelled at her coworkers. Why? Person one thinks Sally is a mean person and cannot help herself. Person two knows Sally’s issues, which affect her judgment. Person three knows her anger resulted from their project failing to meet the required numbers. Person four insulted Sally last week, and this is retribution. There were four different people with four different conclusions, and each was sure they understood Sally.
In the above example, the truth is likely a combination of factors, a single overriding factor, or something unrelated. Humans can be unpredictable, distracted, confused, and obsessed. Plus, the very element that guides us (our minds) may be damaged, obsessed, or drugged out. The possibility also exists that our actions result from boredom, mistakes, or somebody else’s involvement. Worse, we lie, deceive, hate, and get confused.
What kind of person is Sally? Is she a jerk, uncontrolled, arrogant, over-confident, or spiteful? Did she make an honest mistake? Is this event indicative of her life? Will the team’s performance improve because of her outburst? Will there be hurt feelings, retribution, slowdown, HR reports, or sabotage?
What’s the point? It’s easy to assume that Sally is not a complex person. She got mad one day and nothing more. I can’t entirely agree. Sally is a mature woman with a developed personality based on a lifetime of education, experiences, social interaction, observation, victories, and mistakes. Even if she had a single overriding reason, many aspects came into play. It took effort to voice anger, and Sally chose to do so.
Now that we have discussed Sally’s complex life, let’s write about it. Err. Big problem. Real life, Sally is not a flat person, but stories require characters with obvious motives, clear intentions, and well-defined actions to move the plot along. This will allow readers to appreciate the character’s role, decisions, actions, and reasoning.
Even if Sally’s character contains a well-described background, no book could fully capture her lifetime of experience. As readers, we understand that the simple act of yelling at a bunch of people must be inspired by something tangible. To solve this issue, we accepted an uncomplicated Sally; one day, she yelled at her team because the project was behind schedule. Nothing more.
Nonfiction authors must travel down a different path. Let’s pretend Sally is the famous aviator Amelia Earhart. Amelia walked into the room and yelled at the people about her flight plan. Umm... What? Amelia is no longer with us. How does the author know the foundation for her anger? Why did she choose to speak up that day? Is she always this angry? Readers must understand her personality, motives, and history, but Amelia’s actions are in the past, cannot be changed, and cannot be interviewed. As a writer, the only option is to explain (guess) her actions/decisions.
This article’s point is that life is complex, and a simple event is not simple. Even a well-documented event is challenging to describe in words. Humans have a lot going on, yet we try to write about complex events as if they were simple. This makes it fun to create stories, but writers can never fully capture a person.
You’re the best -Bill
October 30 2019 Updated mber 28, 2024
In the above example, the truth is likely a combination of factors, a single overriding factor, or something unrelated. Humans can be unpredictable, distracted, confused, and obsessed. Plus, the very element that guides us (our minds) may be damaged, obsessed, or drugged out. The possibility also exists that our actions result from boredom, mistakes, or somebody else’s involvement. Worse, we lie, deceive, hate, and get confused.
What kind of person is Sally? Is she a jerk, uncontrolled, arrogant, over-confident, or spiteful? Did she make an honest mistake? Is this event indicative of her life? Will the team’s performance improve because of her outburst? Will there be hurt feelings, retribution, slowdown, HR reports, or sabotage?
What’s the point? It’s easy to assume that Sally is not a complex person. She got mad one day and nothing more. I can’t entirely agree. Sally is a mature woman with a developed personality based on a lifetime of education, experiences, social interaction, observation, victories, and mistakes. Even if she had a single overriding reason, many aspects came into play. It took effort to voice anger, and Sally chose to do so.
Now that we have discussed Sally’s complex life, let’s write about it. Err. Big problem. Real life, Sally is not a flat person, but stories require characters with obvious motives, clear intentions, and well-defined actions to move the plot along. This will allow readers to appreciate the character’s role, decisions, actions, and reasoning.
Even if Sally’s character contains a well-described background, no book could fully capture her lifetime of experience. As readers, we understand that the simple act of yelling at a bunch of people must be inspired by something tangible. To solve this issue, we accepted an uncomplicated Sally; one day, she yelled at her team because the project was behind schedule. Nothing more.
Nonfiction authors must travel down a different path. Let’s pretend Sally is the famous aviator Amelia Earhart. Amelia walked into the room and yelled at the people about her flight plan. Umm... What? Amelia is no longer with us. How does the author know the foundation for her anger? Why did she choose to speak up that day? Is she always this angry? Readers must understand her personality, motives, and history, but Amelia’s actions are in the past, cannot be changed, and cannot be interviewed. As a writer, the only option is to explain (guess) her actions/decisions.
This article’s point is that life is complex, and a simple event is not simple. Even a well-documented event is challenging to describe in words. Humans have a lot going on, yet we try to write about complex events as if they were simple. This makes it fun to create stories, but writers can never fully capture a person.
You’re the best -Bill
October 30 2019 Updated mber 28, 2024
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