Thought for the Day I shy away from plot structure that depends on the characters behaving in ways ...

[Paul Whybrow]

I shy away from plot structure that depends on the characters behaving in ways that are going to eventually be explained by their childhood, or by some recent trauma or event. People are incredibly complicated. Who knows why they are the way they are?

Rachel Kushner

 

[Claire G]

Good point, but I've had critique partners, i.e. readers, specifically ask why a character is the way they are. Backstory explains personality, behaviour, motivations, choices, how they form and sustain relationships etc etc etc. The more extreme the character, the more it seems the reader wants to know this. For example, I have domestic abuse in one relationship, and I was asked, "Why is he like that?" and "Why doesn't she just leave?" Yes, it's complex, and A plus B doesn't always = C, but we have to reveal some kind of cause and effect to satisfy the reader, surely???

 

[Hannah Faoileán]

Good point, but I've had critique partners, i.e. readers, specifically ask why a character is the way they are. Backstory explains personality, behaviour, motivations, choices, how they form and sustain relationships etc etc etc. The more extreme the character, the more it seems the reader wants to know this. For example, I have domestic abuse in one relationship, and I was asked, "Why is he like that?" and "Why doesn't she just leave?" Yes, it's complex, and A plus B doesn't always = C, but we have to reveal some kind of cause and effect to satisfy the reader, surely???

Absolutely agree. Every person is a product of nature, nurture and identity. Everyone is a hero of their own story, including the bad guys. If there isn't a backstory to why a character does what they do, that character is likely to come across as pretty two-dimensional.

 

[Sedayne]

In trauma theory you always look for the cause of the cause.
Kushner asks 'Who knows why they are the way they are?'
Psychologists, that's who.
And novelists too.