Truth is stranger than fiction. We’ve all heard that one before. But I saw something very disturbing that I thought I’d share.
Across the street, and in full view of the window by where I do all my gazing writing, I saw my seventy-year-old neighbor smoking from a small bronze colored pipe. In. Broad. Daylight. This is not the wooden pipe our grandfathers smoked, nor is this a grandfather, but a grandmother. Are you with me so far?
So she keeps taking hits from this metal contraption, tapping it upon occasion, while I keep my face smashed up against the window in disbelief. I feel a bit voyeuristic and unneighborly and unsatisfied.
Because now I need to tell someone.
Who can I call that would believe this? No one will. It’s too out of character for a mature woman who spends her days puttering in her yard and garden to be standing in her driveway getting high.
Surely there’s a good reason why her mind snapped, and I should be doing all I can to help her through her crisis. Instead, I call my mother, she’ll believe it. Mother has been threatening to snap in a similar manner for years. But just as I punch her numbers, I see my neighbor take her pipe and screw it into the ground then turn on her sprinkler system where water now flows clog-free, and my phone returns to its cradle, and my red face slides down the window to meet my slumped body on my seat.
So that, my friends, is my lesson today on believable characters. We wouldn’t suddenly have one of our fictional characters do something outside their profile. Like I tried to pull in my own writing (and with my neighbor). Yesterday in my critique group, a member asked me if I was still submitting my book as fiction. When I said yes, she said, while this scene worked when it was told as memoir, as fiction, it’s out of character.
Ah, yes. The ole truth-is-more-believable and stay-in-character advice. I needed it in more ways than one.
That story is hilarious! And your application so true.
that’s sooo funny!!
i could picture you as mrs. kravitz, the nosy neighbor on Bewitched, sitting there with your face pressed up against the window.
quite a good lesson.
thanks for sharing =)
-e*
Thanks Linda, I wish I didn’t have so many true life applications.
Eden,
Oh, Mrs Kravitz, yes, I remember her. Now that you mention it I totally am her. But if I had my choice in characters, I’d be Samantha so I could wiggle my nose and my book would be perfect and ready for an agent.
yes, it would be quite nice to be samantha!!
i’d so use her abilities make sure everything in life was taken care of so i could just sit and write =)
and then the nose wiggling for editing and securing an agent–perfect idea, tricia!!!
these bewitched references are funny! i’ve taken to calling my boss “aunt clara” because he’s gotten so dang forgetful these past few months. hilariouS!
Oh, Samantha – one of my favorites. Sometimes, when I find myself writing ‘truth’ into my fiction I have to erase because I know it seems too far fetched! So true!
SOMEONE in your critique group deserves a prize! That’s a very acute observation.
Jennifer,
When I apply true stories to fiction, I almost have to neuter it before it’s believable.
Christian,
She does deserve a prize as do all of my invaluable critiquers, such as yourself. What would I do without you all?
Eden,
I could get quite carried away with the Samantha fantasy. Forget agent-ready book, I’m already on Oprah pitching my fifth bestseller.
too funny!! =)
ahhh, wouldn’t that be the life?!??!? if only…..
Yes, she does deserve a prize for giving you that invaluable advice. How about some bagels and cream cheese? 🙂
That was a hilarious story about your neighbor. I could really picture your nose against the glass. And, I found this story completely in character for you. LOL (only because I would’ve been doing the same thing.)
Isn’t she sick of bagels and cream cheese? I heard she likes chocolate.
[…] reason. You’d think I’d learned my lesson since my last publicly-admitted blunder in Believable Characters (notice I say “publicly admitted. Imagine what I keep […]