In my opinion, one of the keys to successful writing is believability.
This is true of all kinds of writing. If you have a believable character, your reader will follow him or her anywhere. Even into unbelievable situations.
Let's look at this in terms of jokes. A joke has two parts--the straight line and the punchline. The punchline is, of course, very important because that's where the 'funny" is. However, the straight line performs an equally important job--getting the listener/reader to the punchline. It does this by saying something that's believable. That we can say to ourselves. "That seems right."
For example, the comedian, Henny Youngman had a joke, "Take my wife--please." Forget about the hilarity of this for a moment and look at the straight line. Henny is talking, and then says, "Take my wife." It's something that any of us might say sometime during a conversation. The person that you're saying this to thinks you're trying to give an example, using your wife. If you followed that up with the punchline--"please," the person will be caught totally off guard and laugh.
In fiction this works the same way.
In the humorous mystery, "Yours, Mine and Ours," by Mary Janice Davidson there's a scene where an FBI agent is confused as to where she is. At first she thinks she standing in snow. Then it turns out that the snow is actually poodle fur. Now, that's an offbeat situation but we laugh because Davidson has made her character seem so real.
The same is true in drama. If you look at the show, "Breaking Bad," and think purely about the situations, you'll probably find some of them not so believable. But because the characters seemed so real, we believed it.
So believe me, when I say that you should make your characters believable!!
Have fun every day,
Steve
.
This is true of all kinds of writing. If you have a believable character, your reader will follow him or her anywhere. Even into unbelievable situations.
Let's look at this in terms of jokes. A joke has two parts--the straight line and the punchline. The punchline is, of course, very important because that's where the 'funny" is. However, the straight line performs an equally important job--getting the listener/reader to the punchline. It does this by saying something that's believable. That we can say to ourselves. "That seems right."
For example, the comedian, Henny Youngman had a joke, "Take my wife--please." Forget about the hilarity of this for a moment and look at the straight line. Henny is talking, and then says, "Take my wife." It's something that any of us might say sometime during a conversation. The person that you're saying this to thinks you're trying to give an example, using your wife. If you followed that up with the punchline--"please," the person will be caught totally off guard and laugh.
In fiction this works the same way.
In the humorous mystery, "Yours, Mine and Ours," by Mary Janice Davidson there's a scene where an FBI agent is confused as to where she is. At first she thinks she standing in snow. Then it turns out that the snow is actually poodle fur. Now, that's an offbeat situation but we laugh because Davidson has made her character seem so real.
The same is true in drama. If you look at the show, "Breaking Bad," and think purely about the situations, you'll probably find some of them not so believable. But because the characters seemed so real, we believed it.
So believe me, when I say that you should make your characters believable!!
Have fun every day,
Steve
.