As fiction writers, we are all aware that it is a serious no-no to allow your characters to “act out of character.” But what this advice is referring to is the mistake of letting characters act out of character for no apparent reason.
In other words, if your character is acting differently from usual because something unusual has happened to excite or upset or sadden him, then his behavior is not really so out of character after all. Even those who are noted for staying the course and being steady on their feet still let their emotions get an upper hand once in a while.
One morning, while I was enjoying a hot chocolate near a toy aisle at a bookstore café, I saw a middle-aged man accidentally knock a toy off a shelf as he passed by. No harm was done, and I thought nothing of it as I expected the man, who had turned and looked down at the toy now resting on the floor, to pick it up and carefully replace it on the shelf as I (and any “normal” person, I thought) would have done.
Instead, to my alarm, he gave the toy a vicious kick and left it there before he turned and walked away.
I was shocked. What a mean, unnecessary thing to do, I thought. What a mean and miserable human being that man must be. I just hoped he didn’t treat his wife or kids—much less his dog!—that way.
This disturbing scene plagued me for some time until it dawned on me that, instead of indicating the man’s natural character, what I had witnessed in the bookstore might have been aberrant behavior that would horrify the perpetrator himself even more than it did me when he calmed down enough to reflect on it. In other words, he may have been acting “out of character.”
Perhaps he had just lost his job and was upset that he couldn’t buy his son the toy he wanted for Christmas. Perhaps he’d been beaten as a child by an older bully who took his favorite toy away from him. Perhaps this action figure reminded him of a military leader who had cost some of the men in this man’s platoon to lose their lives.
We have no way of knowing, do we? As observers who have no foreknowledge of this man, his history, or his current situation, we can only assume that this behavior is typical of him. If we knew his history but not his current situation, we might realize that he was acting out of character, but it would make no sense to us just as it makes no sense to our readers when we have a character behave in an uncharacteristic manner with no explanation.
If, on the other hand, we knew that he had just lost his job or his wife had just left him or his child had just died, we would be more understanding. After all, none of us is perfect. We are all human.
So, to increase emotional impact on your readers, let your characters act out of character on rare occasion. Let the kind, friendly grandmother snap at her lifelong best friend; let the considerate young man slam the door in the face of the woman behind him; let the monstrous villain rescue a starving kitten—and yes, it must be a kitten (just kidding)!
These exceptional out-of-character moments can give the reader more insight as to the complexity of the character and what makes him tick. These episodes that bring out the best in an evil character or the worst in a good one help to give him a more human dimension.
But do not write these anomalies into your story unless they have meaning. And be sure to let your readers know what has caused such an unusual reaction in your character.
It’s okay to lead your readers into the dark—but only if you leave a light on for them.
© 2022 Ann Henry, all rights reserved.
Photo: The Man Behind the Mask © 2014 Ann Henry, all rights reserved.