Measure of a Man
Every person, I think, carries around some "test" by which they measure other people. The test varies from person to person. And it varies from "test" to "test." Whenever I dated someone, it was a measure of a man to see how his rapport was with the waiter or waitress--whether he was rude or condescending. It was a measure to me regarding certain politics. A person could have vastly different politics from me, as long as no hate rhetoric crept into their thinking. It is a measure of a person to me how they deal with my Dynamo Boy, who is a handful, but is also amazingly bright and precious. It is a measure to me when I see how people deal with some friends of mine whose children have autism or other disabilities. It is a measure to me how someone deals with the elderly. I observe people as they either pass or fail these hidden tests.
Which brings me to writing. Every main character overcomes a challenge and is changed by it. We give them tests and then make them pass or fail. There is always the "big test." In my work in progress, Aleks must defeat a virus through medicine. But there are smaller tests. How will he deal with the death of his best friend? How will he treat the frightened elderly couple across the hall? I think in the richest of stories, we put in little tests that offer reader clues as to the measure of a man (or woman). We weave them through the early parts of the story so we can make a decision on whether or not to root for the main character.
What measures or tests have you embedded into your work in progress?
21 comments:
I may be completely wrong here (often am), but it's my perception that women are more likely to have these little "tests" of other people than men do. Or maybe it's just me, but I'm curious to see what your readers say.
Mark:
Interesting. But . . . when you set up your hero . . . do you choose any smaller scenarios to show what he's made of, or not because you hit the ground running?
And I suppose for me, as a woman/person, I am interested in a person's CHARACTER more than their title or whatever. So maybe that's why I measure up people against character issues I have.
Mark, you're only partly wrong. :-) My husband has a few (very few) standards/gauges/tests when it comes to reading a person's character. But, I chalk it up to his profession - a prosecutor, a/k/a a bull-shit detective, lol.
On the other hand, as a woman, I have one big test of character: If a person is a bigot then I need to know nothing else about them. They're dead to me.
Kath:
WOW! I didn't know he was a prosecutor. What a wealth of research you are married to!!!!!!!!!!
I like this topic. I have to think of what tests I use.
I'm not sure that Mark is right on this one--my brothers would dump a girl for something as silly as she didn't reach across to unlock the door for them to get into the car. Small taking-care-of-others type things.
I think Mark may be right. I hate to say it but I think the eyes often do the testing for men even beyond the romance department. I think we make more snap judgment and only slowly are those preconceived notions changed.
Of course it is different in writing than real life. A character smut face tests and is constantly judged by a reader. I am struggling with these very things in my WIP which is a memoir. I fear how the readers view may be skewed by their limited look at both myself and the other characters. I really need to find a few beta readers that do not know me as my crit member or coworkers do.
Heather:
Guys I know have dumped girls for stupid things, too . . . but they were commitment-phobes, so . . . .
E
Travis:
I'll be happy to take a peek. Email me.
Hugs,
E
Perhaps I'm not like some of the men who frequent your blog. I look for many things, too, but mostly kindness in relationships. How do they treat friends, family, people they don't know.
I'm like Kath, too... racism ends the conversation, as does homophobia or some other form of intolerance.
In my WIP, my YA character has to learn to leave his fears behind, and embrace a bigger world. But he also has to overcome the venomous hatred of an old Vietnamese woman whom he put in the hospital after a horrible accident
I just wrote the scene in which Jacob finally knows he's been forgiven.
I don't think the differential in these tests is a sex thing... I don't think more women have tests than men - it's more of a street smarts characteristic.
People think when you say 'street smarts' you're talking about knowing how to hustle or it's someone who's not that intelligent academically, so they rely on other things - the second assumption annoys me, but we'll move on. The real tell of someone with street smarts is how well they read people. You read people through tests like these.
Some people don't even realize they're testing people. They do it instinctively and it's in all these little things you wouldn't generally notice but it all adds up to give you a picture of how well you can trust a person, how much you can take them at their word.
Any good writer has this, whether they realize that's what they're doing or not. You can't build a fully fleshed out character without it, let alone a whole novel full of them.
My mc actually has this exact trait, his biggest obstacle is doing what's right even though he knows on the most fundamental of levels that the other person will not return the favor.
I love the waitress test, E. It's one of mine, too. :-)
For Trinidad from the readers' point of view, it's how he treats children and the people around him, how he handles pain.
For the characters in his life, they'd judge him on faith and courage and skill on the battlefield.
For me, it's how well a person can take teasing. I tend to shy away from people who take themselves too seriously.
My husband is very kind to wait staff, to the point of charming. I've seen waitresses almost swoon. Of course he notices none of that since he's one of those dense man-types. :)
The thing I used to illustrate Harvey's character was child abuse. Not the outright kind that everyone despises, that grey area where what the parent does isn't outright wrong. How many times have you run into a situation where a parent loves their child, really cares, and yet does something bizarre like starves them for three days to "clean out the infection."
Richmond - ack! Never, thank God.
Richard:
Did you cry when you wrote it? Scenes like that . . . always are so cathartic for me!
Starbucks:
I put spots in books (chick lit, mostly) where there's either a child, waitress, moment of small talk, that I hope reveal something of a person's character that way.
And your hubs sounds like a good guy!
Richmond:
Never run into that, but I HAVE run into (recently) a mom on the creepy scale as far as her thinking on some things.
I did.
And it came just after a scene of child abuse that I never intended to write, so I've been going through tissues at an alarming rate.
They might try to kick me out of the guy club — good thing I can lick my weight in wildcats.
Richard:
Real men shed tears over child abuse.
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