A Word About Bologna
I once took a psychology course, and my professor said there was substantial support in research for the idea of food phobias being related to trauma. Let's take me and bologna. When I was nine at a Girl Scout Camp, they were the two most God-awful weeks of my life. I considered it a torture camp. Hated every moment of it. And to make matters worse, there was a policy at mealtime. You couldn't simply say, "I don't like bologna." You have to give it a "Girl Scout try." I kept insisting I despised bologna, but they essentially FORCED me to eat it, and I promptly puked. After that, even the SMELL of bologna made me sick. I have a similar story about soft-boiled eggs. I'll spare you the details.
That said . . . this post is about organic characterization. There is a tendency for some authors to pile quirks on top of quirks or to add these oddball details about a character. But WHY is always my first question. If psychologists can trace bologna-phobia to a meal-time trauma, so must EVERY trait or quirk be explained in some fashion--even if the details never make your book . . . the back story has to be there to have an organic sense of character.
In Double Down, for instance, Skye is a gambling addict. Now, this makes perfect sense--her dad is a bookie. But in truth, it goes much deeper than that, and she talks, at one point, about an incident in her childhood involving the empty places where her dad used to hide his illegal flash paper (something used, way back when, to write your gambling "books" on--you could set it on fire in a "flash" or drop it in the toilet and watch it melt away instantly in water--all the better for a police raid--don't ask me how I know all this . . . or I'd have to kill you). She gambled because of empty places that nothing but gambling filled--she gambled as a motherless daughter, missing the woman who was snatched from her life, to fill that hole. I did NOT as author wake up one morning and think, "Oh, what the hell, I'll make her a compulsive gambler." The thread of that compulsion had to run all the way back almost to birth. To the empty place.
So . . . this is a word about bologna. And a word about organic character traits. It's all, in my opinion, about threads you can trace, not traits IMPOSED.
Thoughts? And any bologna tales of your own?
That said . . . this post is about organic characterization. There is a tendency for some authors to pile quirks on top of quirks or to add these oddball details about a character. But WHY is always my first question. If psychologists can trace bologna-phobia to a meal-time trauma, so must EVERY trait or quirk be explained in some fashion--even if the details never make your book . . . the back story has to be there to have an organic sense of character.
In Double Down, for instance, Skye is a gambling addict. Now, this makes perfect sense--her dad is a bookie. But in truth, it goes much deeper than that, and she talks, at one point, about an incident in her childhood involving the empty places where her dad used to hide his illegal flash paper (something used, way back when, to write your gambling "books" on--you could set it on fire in a "flash" or drop it in the toilet and watch it melt away instantly in water--all the better for a police raid--don't ask me how I know all this . . . or I'd have to kill you). She gambled because of empty places that nothing but gambling filled--she gambled as a motherless daughter, missing the woman who was snatched from her life, to fill that hole. I did NOT as author wake up one morning and think, "Oh, what the hell, I'll make her a compulsive gambler." The thread of that compulsion had to run all the way back almost to birth. To the empty place.
So . . . this is a word about bologna. And a word about organic character traits. It's all, in my opinion, about threads you can trace, not traits IMPOSED.
Thoughts? And any bologna tales of your own?
posted by Erica Orloff at 6:24 PM
17 Comments:
I feel the same way about red onions, Erica.
I think the temptation is to load these quirks on to keep a character seeming generic and cookie-cutter. In my opinion, unless it's done well, it often has exactly that effect. It makes me think it's been done purely to make the character seem interesting and it doesn't ring true.
naomi:
Precisely . . . that's how I feel. I once coached a writer who was told that his character was too stock . . . (anti-social detective). AFTER the fact, he decided to add in a gambling addiction. However, it never felt intrinsic to the book and it was to the book's detriment, in my opinion. Also, compulsive gambling is harder to kick than heroin--a very, very tough and difficult addiction with very specific character traits. So . . . you can't just tack it on. In my opinion, creating quirks has got to have that back story element--has to make sense.
E
You are, of course 100% right. I had a story where the mother, who was a complete uptight, b*tch, gave her daughter's some very un-uptight names! And even though I didn't know why, I knew it was important and my subconscious came through by the end of the story.
My ex refused to eat leftovers when we were married--he was one of five and they were dirt poor growing up. He still has a thing about *things*.
Great post, Erica! It's a good lesson for all writers. And it calls to mind an interesting incident during my first RWA conference a few years ago. I went out to dinner with a bunch of people, including a newly published author I had never met before. She was one of the nastiest people I've ever met (and shall remain nameless, of course). She immediately decided she disliked me for some reason and spent the bulk of dinner GRILLING me mercilessly about the book I was going to be pitching the next day. She followed every one of my answers with, "Why?" I hated her, BUT.... I can now see that she actually taught me a good lesson that night. You have to ask "why?" about everything you write. And if you can't answer it, then you haven't developed the character enough.
I hated Girl Scout camp, too, by the way. But I'm a shameless lover of bologna sandwiches.
Louise :)
My detective is loosely based on a kid I knew in elementary school. He lived in The Projects, came to school in wrinkled hand-me-downs, hair always a mess and needing cut, skinny and pale. Every day he brought a brown bag lunch (the bag itself was recycled until falling apart) with a bologna sandwich on white bread, and the bologna was always a little green around the edges (sorry, Erica). We went to different Jr. Highs, but another friend and I visited him in the hospital once after his stepfather had stabbed him in the gut. That was the last time I saw him.
So, when creating my character, I asked, "What if K.O. grew up to be a cop and then a PI."
It gave me a built-in shitty childhood to empathetically work with, built in quirks and attitudes.
My husband is a patient man--he humors my writer's curiosity. Why would someone do that? Why do they behave that way? What makes them that way? She's different now, why?
And food--sour kraut...eeew!
Great post, Erica!!
Amie:
I am open to all quriks--as long as a write can explain them. My significant other grew up in intense poverty and there is enough food in my pantry to feed us through a nuclear explosion--but in context it makes sense.
E
louise:
Well, I am one for learning how to critique properly (see my post on HONESTY). But . . . yes, I do see that WHY is an important question.
E
Jude:
You are making me hate bologna even more.
:-)
E
kathy:
I was a journalism major (one of my three majors) . . . and that built-in WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE and WHY have served me well.
E
My husband and I are sharing our favorite movies with each other. One of his favs is Jeramiah Johnson. A man who was in a war became a mountain man. Why?
I loved Redford's acting in Jeramiah Johnson and the movie was enjoyable, BUT the why of his becoming a mountain man was never revealed. Was it due to his experiences in war? Personal loss? Mistreatment? To escape the war? Pure love of the wilderness?
The movie hinted at possibities, but did not provide an answer as to WHY Jeramiah Johnson was the broken man he was.
Because the reason for Jeramiah Johnson's quirkiness was not explained, it came across as imposed and drove this writer crazy.
I think there are some things in real life that don't have backstories. Like, there's no summer-camp-type reason I have to take an equal amount of ice cream off the entire top of the carton--I can't just dig down into it, and I have a difficult time just taking some off the top (and yes, that means big bowls, shut up, I know. :) )
HOWEVER. This is one of those things that just can't be like real life. I agree wholeheartedly that in fiction, everything has to circle back to something, and that means that quirks should have explanation.
I've been trying to stick to a vegetarian diet, but this post is making me hungry for a bologna and cheese sandwich with red onions and mayo, with a side of sour kraut.
Do they make tofu bologna?
kathy:
I can think of a number of movies that have left me feeling that way. If I don't understand the motivation, why should I care. That's why in books and in movies, I think OBSESSIVE cops and detectives and so on are a lot more interesting--they are trying to solve the case but there is an underlying darker reason why they are so obsessed with justice.
E
Natalie:
Definitely. Though I do think some quirks even in real life can be traced. I know EXACTLY where my quirk to have little statues and treasures around me started--even wrote about it in the Roofer. I know why I feed the birds--I have flocks of them living in my trees. Yes, I like birds, but they remind me of somewhere and someone else. Scratch the surface and a lot of things are like that. For instance, if you make certain foods a certain way, a lot of times your mom showed you or your grandma. It's so much a part of ourselves we don't often think of it.
But all that aside . . . yes, in fiction I really think you need quirks to be memorable, but not to the detriment of character, so that back story stuff of WHY becomes important.
Happy New Year!
E
Jude:
Even if they DID make tofu bologna . . . it sounds too gross to even contemplate.
E
How about deep-fried tofu bologna dipped in chocolate and rolled in coconut...on a sandwich with red onions and a side of kraut.
I've heard it's the ultimate hangover cure. ;)
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