Writing "Stupid"

What do you think of when you see the title above?

Do you think of being "freed" to write badly?

Do you think about writing "dreck" as a first draft and being fine with it?

Well, while all those things could be the meaning of the title...

...that's not what I mean with it this time around. 

What I'm referring to is the capacity to write people in your books who do stupid things.

Having them make, in fact, decisions that you don't even agree with.

And letting them completely screw up...because they're human.

For those of you sitting there scratching your heads and wondering, "What's the big deal about that?" I can tell you that, for some of us, being courageous enough to write people who are irrational, who blunder because they're scared or timid or acting under a mistaken impression...and who make really bad decisions as a result...is hard.

The old "unreliable narrator," as my critique partner is fond of calling it, is tough to write. And I know that because I have frequently lacked the courage and/or ability to do it before.

One of the criticisms I've gotten, over the years, is that some of my characters were "too perfect." Not so much because they were too pretty, or too successful, or too untroubled--but because they were so ding-danged rational.

Not that they'd never get mad or upset or crazed; they would. 

But they'd get over it really fast...and usually by talking themselves out of it.

Using calm, reasoned, oh-so-adult maturity, and sensibility, and never flying off the handle to the point where they'd said something truly awful that they couldn't take back.

Well, there was a good reason for that.

It was because I didn't want people to dislike my characters.

And then, lo and behold, along comes Debbie Macomber....

...who has written characters who are, at times, so completely frustrating to me that I'm yelling at them as I'm reading the page. 

"No!" I'm saying, as the hero and heroine are fighting over something and sounding like children. "No! Come on, you two! Grow up! You know better!"

...or characters who want something so desperately that they go completely over the edge after it, alienating everyone around them, and messing up their relationships and lives.

To which I'm muttering, "Oh, come on, girl. Open your eyes. You're just being ridiculous."

...but the woman sells like gazillions. And is loved by gazillions.

Why?

Because she writes real people.

Real people who are snotty at times.

Who are immature. Who are vindictive. Who are stubborn. Who give up on something way too soon, or who push so hard for something that they trample on everyone in their lives. Who let themselves be led down primrose paths, or who "chicken out" before they even get to the path in the first place. Who can be myopic, and oversensitive, and miss the obvious when it's standing right in front of them, painted in 10-foot-high red letters.

In other words, they act like we all do at times.

And somehow, they end up in a happy-ever-after ending anyway.

Because they do figure out that they're wrong...before they can't redeem themselves, or the situation, or the relationship, or...

But writing people who do that takes a couple of things.

Talent, of course, first.

But even more, I think, than talent...it takes guts.

And patience. 

Because if you put your character in a mess of her own making, it's going to take time for her to clean up that mess, make amends, apologize, patch things back up, and get back to True North.

Time that you as an author have to give her.

Have to walk her through.

And, the whole time, have faith that your character will still be "likable" in the end, even if he or she's been a complete ass for several (or several dozen) pages.

Even if he or she's been...stupid.

In my latest book, I'm about to do that with my heroine.

I'm about to write her doing something I know is a bad idea.

She's even going to be told it's a bad idea.

But she's gonna do it anyway.

It scares me half out of my skin to be venturing into writing someone about to do this...

...because there's a very, very thin line between real...

...and TSTL.

And I don't want to cross it.

So, cover me, Goose. I'm goin' in.

Thoughts?

Janny