Just passing through
It rained and rained and rained and then it snowed here this weekend. Saturday I stayed in, cleaned out closets and talked on the phone and Sunday I went to Target.
Please, please — don’t hate me because I’m fascinating.
During the stint indoors I read a bit and watched a lot. I watched Food Network marathons, Keeping up with the Kardashians (don’t ask) and two movies — The Object of My Affection and The Secret Life of Bees. No contest there, The Secret Life of Bees is a wonderfully acted fine film and The Object of My Affection is a chick flick. Actually they’re both chick flicks, just of completely different calibers. But while I was watching The Object of My Affection and Jennifer Anniston, the main character, was having her baby — I started thinking. Where’s her family? This movie depicted a twenty-something single woman having a baby. Her friends were there but no family. Am I the only one who wondered where they were? It didn’t take away from the story at all, but it distracted me because it made no sense. Had a sibling or parents showed up for the baby scenes I totally would have been OK with that.
And I was thinking the same thing watching Grey’s Anatomy last week. One of the characters has 5% chance of living through brain cancer surgery – and all I could think was “Is Izzy an orphan?” There were the comrades in white coats waiting in the hall for word of her prognosis but nothing like a long-lost aunt or black sheep brother.
And I wondered, as only a writer would, whether those scenarios could or would work in a book. The movie certainly offered no backstory, never a mention of family — maybe Grey’s has tackled this topic before, but I doubt it because unless the parent is part of the show, they’re not mentioned. I understand the snapshot approach to storytelling and only giving the reader/viewer what’s pertinent – but doesn’t it have to make sense?
The Secret Life of Bees left no stone unturned and that was much more satisfying.
In life I believe it’s possible – even preferable – that some people pass through your life doing their part, leaving their piece — and then they’re gone. They’re not inconsequential, they’re necessary, and sometimes their footprint in your life lasts a very long time.
Can you introduce a character or character have them ‘do their thing’ and then ‘be gone’? Or if that’s possible to do — are they really necessary at all? In real life things are random, friendships can be fleeting, events are unscheduled and lessons are arbitrary. Book are none of those things – but if your character was having a baby would you give her a family for one chapter? I think I would.
I would, too. Or, at the very least, I’d explain their absense.
And for what it’s worth, there is NOTHING dull about Target.
Don’t worry Amy, I’d only hate you if you were boring. Cleaning out closets, talking on the phone (which, since the advent of texting, is already obsolete for teenagers) and most definitely going to Target simply prove you’re totally fascinating! (Or at least at interesting as me, and I strive to believe I’m fascinating.) As far as placing family in the story, I think it depends on the story. If you’re dying? Um, yes. If you’re having a baby? Um, yes again. What do those writers know, anyway?
Janna,
I agree, I need ‘a little somthing.’ And you’re right, Target rocks. Have you seen that dollar section? Too cute!
Debbie,
I guess those writers know what sells! I know they’re not books – but it all got me thinking. Never a bad thing.
Amy
I like what Debbie said. I’d explain their absense as well. Nothing wrong with being random, but when you’re writing even–randomness has to make some sort of sense.
I remember when I was in the 8th grade back in like 1994(I think), my computer lab teacher hosted this Halloween story contest and I always LOVED writing stories. Anyhow, I wrote this story about some girl named Alison who…found some ghost or something and it was going to kill everyone and ‘suddenly’ she found these magic gold coins with special powers and it saved the day. (Goofy, I know.)
I won second place. It was announced over the intercom that day and I was so proud of myself. The teacher pulled me aside later that day and said, ‘Alicia, you would have won first place, but you needed to explain where the coins came from.’
And as trivial as it may seem, I NEVER forgot that. I never forgot to ‘explain the coins’ ever again. I think you can get away with that in a movie, but in writing…I think it comes off as not paying attention, or not willing to put in the extra work. It would have been nothing to say something like “As such and such character lie waiting on the hospital bed alone, she couldn’t help but to feel the absence of her dead parents”…or something along those lines.
For writers, I think it’s mandetory to fill in ALL the blanks.
Gah…Janna…not Debbie. Speaking of not paying attention eh? *lol*
Alicia,
I have to disagree with your teacher (GASP) because in some stories things just are, especially when it comes to ghosts and magic coins.
But — EXPLAIN THE COINS is an amazing way to remember to make sure that things that should be explained, are.
Just my 2 cents!!
Amy
I have noticed this time and again with Grey’s Anatomy–and it really drives me nuts. When family is not at the hospital–it must be explained. I think they separated adult conjoined twins without any family members. C’mon? I just don’t buy it.
Great article, Amy. Sometimes in an effort to cut out all the unnecessary, I think maybe we cut out too much.
I love Grey’s Anatomy and I never noticed the parent issue. Usually with the main characters it’s handled in pretty good detail. But I don’t remember the history on Izzie’s except that she grew up in a trailer park and had to pay her own way through school… it didn’t occur to me that they would be there.
With the Jennifer Anniston movie, I don’t remember the giving birth scene now, but I do remember she had a very overbearing sister, so it seems like she’d be the first one ther.
Oh, and I think Alicia’s teacher was more awesome than she knows! I get what you mean about magical coins, but Editorial Anon just did a post about this last week explaining that you can’t just magically send something to save the protag without explanation… which was pretty good, and I think the explanation goes a ways to keep reader trust, too.
Closets and Target? On the same weekend? Wow, blow it out, girl.
I have a few characters not rooted in the story, but most are there through thick and thin. Sorta like real life.
Family in a crisis would be necessary IMO. Didn’t you love Bees?
OMG, I think the same thing about family. My adult daughter and I talk every day. I call my mom every day. It’s never nagging or anything, just friendship. And I sit there and think, on some shows or movies, have these people NO ONE? No one to call? The 2:00 a.m. panic call . . . I mean, when I gave birth to my oldest son, I had THREE people in the delivery room and a hallway full.
E
Sex and the City is exactly the same, no families in any of it. Even when Charlotte married Trey, some man walked her down the isle. As traditional as Charlotte is/was, you’d think there would have been an emphasis on her father. Nothing.
I think for us family oriented people, family is always on our minds. Any life event, we know our families would be the first to be by our side. Seeing these on tv or in movies, its very foreign to us when no family shows up.
I dont know if it could be pulled off in a book, the missing family. I’d be interested in reading a story like that just to see how it works.
I *always* wonder about things like that, whether it’s television or movies. I wonder about other stuff too, and I often comment on things that aren’t realistic. For instance, I enjoy the television show “House”. But it drives me bananas that thirteen and Cameron wear high heels. A real medical professional, who is on their feet all day, would not wear high heels.
It drives my husband crazy when I comment on what he consider meaningless details. He says it’s nitpicky and detracts from the enjoyment of the movie. But it’s not nitpicky. And what detracts from the enjoyment of the movie, is bad storytelling.
Maybe people who don’t write, and aren’t consumed with constructing a story that is enjoyable, but plausible, don’t notice such things?
I wonder where the families are with so many tv shows and movies.
I haven’t seen “The Secret Life of Bees” yet, though I adored the book.