Trust
So many plots of novels will, at their heart, come to a moment of trust. Few characters exist as islands. Like all of us, they operate in a world with other characters, and like all of us, they will usually come to a very essenital cross-roads in their storyline, and they must decide. Trust this person? Or not?
Trust the wrong person, and your task of saving the world will be made that much more difficult. Trust the wrong man, your heart will get broken. Trust the wrong cop, the wrong attorney, the wrong . . . fill-in-the-blank, and your character will have the screws turned tighter.
Think of how many movies or books in which you, as viewer or reader, cringed. "Don't trust him" you want to scream at the movie screen. Because you wonder . . . can that character be trusted? Is he really the bad guy masquerading as the good guy? Every single double-cross movie or book relies on this plot element. David Mamet is genius at plots like that. Without trust, our characters don't have sure footing. They are second- and triple-guessing every move they make.
In real life . . . I decided a long time ago to trust. With a twist. I trust that most people I meet are decent people, but decent people will always make mistakes. I don't want to go through my life as a cynic, second- and triple-guessing everyone's motives. I don't want to live my life holding back from loving with an open heart. I've worked with troubled teens, and with people who need a helping hand. Sometimes, you're going to get conned. That's a fact. But I don't want to come across the next person who needs a bit of charity and kindness and think, "Perhaps I should buy them a winter coat because maybe they really CAN afford it and this is a con." So . . . I trust myself. I ultimately decided that I trust myself to be strong enough to survive any betrayal. My heart will break a little, but I WILL get over it. That way, I trust with an open heart while knowing I will survive the sometimes inevitable stab that comes. That goes to my love life, my family life . . . all of it.
My characters tend to operate that same way. They trust their inner circle with their lives. They are sometimes betrayed. But the rest of the circle closes ranks and supports them, and they survive.
So . . . characters at a crossroad? Who can you trust?
10 comments:
Hmm. I had to go away and think about this. I wanted to say I trust and love with an open heart, but that wouldn't be completely true. Sadly, I have been conned, but I've learned to trust that I'll recover, and, wonky as this sounds, I trust my 'gut'. There are many people I automatically trust and others...I can only bring myself to trust to a degree. And worse, while I have learned the benefits of forgiving my inner circle when inevitable mistakes are made, I am much less forgiving of the outer circle. Fool, me once...
(I scored 1 less than you on the Dr. Phil thingy on Tena's blog =)
But at least fictionally speaking I'm learning to put the screws to my characters and really test their trust and ability to forgive.
Hi Lainey:
I tend to trust my gut too. I don't mean to imply every single person who crosses my path, I trust 100%. But if I decide to be a friend, or to do something good for someone, I try not to hold anything back.
E
I had to think about this too. Making your protagonist trust the wrong person is an excellent device to complicate a plot, but in real life we don't have authors guiding us into doom; most of us are cautious.
I've been shoveling snow for my immediate neighbors for the ten years I've lived in my present house (the law requires us to clear the sidewalks, and I rise early anyway). For the first five years they nevertheless kept getting up to make sure the job got done. Trust is earned slowly. And lost quickly: if I no-showed one morning it would probably be another five years before my neighbors learned to stay in bed again.
Hi Stephen:
I know when I worked with war refugees, the kids trusted me immediately . . . the adults seemed to wonder if I had an agenda, after all they had been through. After a while, I earned their trust . . . but I always knew it was a fragile thing and I had to honor that by being reliable and by being open to what they had to say about their experiences, by being an open listener.
E
I love this topic, and I've got lots more to say about it, but I'll limit myself to just one more thought: you can trust people to do only what they think is right or that serves them best.
Wow, you're brave. I'm the type that my friends can do no wrong. If they do something that I don't like or agree with, I figure that's just who they are, no big deal. I can only think of one friend who ever crossed the line, and no matter how hard we tried, I couldn't trust and get past being a polite acquaintance to her.
This family stuff is so bizarre to me. I'm sorry, that must sound strange, but it's completely outside of my experience. Maybe a miracle will happen and I'll get to make my own family someday. DH and the cats are a wonderful family, but I suspect it's not the same.
I can't, offhand, think of one of my characters who has a family. LOL, there's something to explore next!
I think I want to go read Jane Eyre again. :-)
I'm willing to give people a chance, I try to always see the best in friends and strangers alike, but the list of people I truly trust? The ones I would stake my life on? That's a one-hand affair.
Like Spy, the family thing is a bit out of my experience. But I've made family and have an inner circle. That probably affects the way I trust.
This post comes at a good time because trust in its many forms is one of the things my characters deal with.
Hi Stephen:
Definitely agree with you there. I think sometimes the most stunning betrayals are ones in which, it seems to you, the "right" path is very clear, but someone else views it from a totally different perspective.
Hi Spy:
My family is as tight-knit as they come. I know we're eccentric around the edges, but we're always there for each other, even when we're driving each other crazy. My closest friends end up drawn into the family, too. My best friend is so much part of my family that Demon Baby actually thinks she lives at home with my mom and dad. Which is just hysterical, since she's 35 and has lived on her own for a lotta years--let alone she's not their child--he just thinks she is.
E
hi J.K.:
Trust to the bitter end? Definitely a small handful, I suppose. Having Crohn's disease and nearly dying whittled my friends down and afterwards, I know who the "in the trenches" crew was.
As for characters . . . it's such a pervasive theme, I think,
E
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