Amy Sue Nathan

Unpredictable

I’m reliable and I like being reliable.  But that’s different than being predictable, which I think I am not. And I like that too.  I actually enjoy employing unpredictablility in my life.  I do not feel beholden to be a certain way or maintain a certain mold or shape.  I am not always as I seem to others, even though I am authentic. 

And so it goes with characters in a novel as well.  The most interesting ones are the ones that are reliable — reliable in the sense that they do not disappoint us.  They are true to themselves – even if that changes with the course of the story.   They may indeed, surprise us.  That is where being unpredictable comes in. 

Just when you think you’ve got a character all figured out, he or she goes and does something you don’t expect.  Even if it’s something small.  It’s not “out of character” necessarily, because that might make it unbelievable.  But it is unpredictable.  And when I read something like that, it always makes me smile — like at first I was surprised and then think, “yep, that’s it alrighty.” 

We need to write characters our readers can rely on – but if they are too predictable – HO HUM – that is BOring.  So the key here is balance. 

And I wonder if I can maintain that balance in my story, which means, of course, I first have to balance it in my head.

As I get to some really meaty parts of my book, the parts that drain me, it would be easy to write them predictably.  I could skim the top of the issues, and doggie paddle the story to the other side. The reader would feel safe and unscathed — but they would also become completely untethered from the writing. 

Not good.  I want the reader to feel safe within the walls the book builds around them, but not so safe that they fall asleep while they’re reading.  I have to add a bit of unpredictability into a reliable storyline.  I have to believe that while the two may not always exist simultaneously, they can each do their job where need be.

Being unpredictable in one area of a story doesn’t mean your character has become unreliable in every other part, or even in the next sentence.  That way you don’t break the trust.  Another way to build that connection, and that kinship with your reader is when the unpredictability surprises the character herself, as well as the reader.

I know that sometimes I have surprised myself, in real life.  Haven’t you?

When my kids were going through some problems that were somewhat public — not somewhat public, they were very public — people would often ask, “How are your kids?”  I live in a really nice town with really nice people.  I rely on the fact that my friends and neighbors are nice and caring and they rely on the fact that I take care of my kids and our own business.  And gosh, everyone just wanted to know how my kids were and I was always so grateful for that.  “They’re OK,” I’d say, even when they weren’t.  To the interested party, I was reliably a good mother taking care of my kids and letting everyone know they had nothing to fear.  They relied on that and I obliged.

Then one day someone asked me, “How are you your kids?”

And I shook my head and said, “Not too good. But thanks for asking.”  It just came out.  The woman looked like I’d slapped her and I’ll never forget the muttering and stuttering that followed.  Her muttering and stuttering.

I guess the one thing she relies on now, is that I am unpredictable. 

She never again asked me about my kids.  And that, I’m afraid, was predictable.