Last visit I gave my opinion on body placement. Now back to that via way of dangling or forgotten characters.
For those around my age or who have watched series from the past couple of decades, you might remember a show set in the 1950s. A family with the mom, dad, brother, little sister. Two oddball friends. The hamburger joint and the cool dude in leather jacket.
If so, have you ever wondered what happened to the older brother? He walked up the stairs and was never heard from again.
Something similar happened on a long-running daytime drama. I forget if that character went to bed or out for milk. Either way they weren’t heard from for a few years.
I absolutely love a certain cartoon – big dog, four friends. They’re forever getting chased by crooks dressed as ghosts. Now if you remember, this group always unmasks the crook. One of them has always solved the crime, knows who is being unmasked.
Until one episode when the writers threw a left, out of the park, curveball. The crook was a complete unknown. A character never seen before. Unfair cried the mystery solvers.
And that’s this week’s message – don’t’ be unfair to your readers.
…don’t leave characters dangling in a scene. Just hanging around doing nothing. Why did you bring them in? Let them move, leave, do their bit.
…forgotten – you put them somewhere, now do something about them.
…out of the blue – who are they? Why are they? Where in your story did you mess up that this trick is what you need to save your story?
Whether you map out your story or write as the words come, your story demands a logical plan.
It always comes down to
Start
Middle
End
The middle can take your reader all over the place. A character can be the coffee server and there for one sentence. As long as the server leaves the table and isn’t just standing there for pages, forgotten.
Every being in your story is a character. They need their start, middle, and end, too.