Be honest. Have you ever made your characters do something that no one in their right mind would ever conceive of doing, much less follow through with? Did you have them do it for the sake of furthering your plot, or just to act out a silly scene you thought was oh-so-clever?
I have. I admit it. I’m not talking about when a character chooses to do something wrong…like betraying another character, or something selfish, like stealing or even killing. Those are character actions, based on who they are and their values.
But stupidity…that’s a plot-killer for sure. It’s like all those Star Trek episodes where Kirk and Spock fight to get some insanely powerful weapon or technology. They get it at the end of the show…only by the next episode they’ve totally forgotten they ever had the thing, and so are as bad off as ever when the next big bad alien comes along. Any spaceship captain worth his stripes would have that thing strapped to the hull, primed to blast some tentacled space-freak into photons.
See, what we need to assume as writers is that everyone who reads our book is at least twice as smart as we are. They’re going to catch every plot hole, every inconsistency, even deus ex machina. And when they do, they aren’t going to be happy. Storm-the-castle-with-pitchforks-and-torches unhappy. Never a good reaction to provoke in your readers.
As blogging writer Vanessa Jaye states it: Stooopid characters–check out her example in the link.
So check your stories. Put yourself into the character’s shoes, however big or tight they might fit, and see if their reactions are a little off kilter from reality. If you found a body in your closet, especially of, say, a close relative or romantic interest…instead of reporting it as soon as possible and providing a proper alibi, wouldn’t you rather forget about it, go have lunch, and then return home once the police have already been called in and your neighbor distinctly remembers you leaving the house at such and such a time that clearly makes you a suspect?
No. I didn’t think you would. So make sure you characters aren’t doing dumb stuff either, even for the sake of increasing tension and conflict. There is real tension and conflict (the good kind) and there is fake, badly plotted, dumb-character tension and conflict (the bad kind). Especially in fantasy and science fiction, we need to imbue the story and characters with a sense of realism. People still act like people, and unless there is an amazingly good reason for the character to delay reporting the body in the closet, then the reader should have no reason to suspect that you’re trying to pull a fast one over their superior intellect. Never underestimate your readers, or your characters, for that matter.
I see that smile.