As
time winds down, we are left with one last perspective to examine for
our besieged father and his stubborn girls: the successful candidate.
Even
though this story is a fairy tale about girls who dress up and go
dancing every night, the soldier-of-fortune's perspective is the
easiest and most familiar choice for a single point-of-view. Of all
the people in this story, he is the only dynamic character. (Read
here
for more on static and dynamic characters.) Nobody else changes. And
even the soldier-of-fortune's “change” can be debated.
He
is, unarguably, the most interesting of all the characters in the
story. Everyone else is stuck in a rut, only digging themselves in
deeper with every revolution of the broken record of their lives. The
king's tied hands. The eldest princess's schemes. The youngest
princess's fears. The soldier-of-fortune at least shakes things up.
As
writers, these are the characters we prefer to write about. J. Alfred
Prufrock doesn't eat that peach, after all. Walter Mitty's active
fantasy life never changes anything (original story, not the recent
film). Thoreau, for all his abstract optimism, left Walden Pond
because the work of living interfered with his writing. He wrote
about the time there, not about his decades of mooching. Brilliant
writers may write about “everyman” and his indecision, but most
writers and readers would rather follow the adventures of a “doer.”
Just
because you, young writer, are telling a story about active conflict
does not mean that your character must be active, extroverted, or
loud. All of these character traits make for an interesting journey,
certainly, but none of them are necessary. What your dynamic
characters do need, however, are small OODA loops.
No,
I'm not just making this stuff up. Silly rabbits. John Boyd of the US
Air Force developed this cycle—Observe, Orient, Decide, Act—to
help people find a way to quickly move forward in a situation. Making
good use of this concept does require someone to know what
information is important and what should be done about it, which
takes study and practice, but a strong dynamic character should not
be sitting on his hands. Hopefully, he is busy making good decisions,
but dynamics are not just about internal changes like a heart
growing, or a vengeance coalescing. Dynamic characters need to be
functional in active conflicts, too.
For
the soldier-of-fortune, his external GMC is easy to spot. Makes good
use of his own OODA loop, too. Goal: solve the mystery. Motivation:
new job title/NOT getting his head chopped off. Conflict: active
hostility from the princesses. Wonderfully straightforward.
The
readers' trust in his ability to handle these physical conflicts is
based on the internal conflicts he first handles with efficiency and
kindness. When he meets the old woman, he does not hesitate to help
her. So when her response is to provide him with the wisdom and the
tools to take on the princesses, the reader is not surprised that he
accepts the help quickly and moves on to his next challenge. Each
decision the soldier-of-fortune must make is done with a minimal of
dithering. Very small OODA loop for our hero.
Writing
from this perspective doesn't require you to study military strategy.
The soldier-of-fortune, however, doesn't come with a lot of internal
conflict. Writing him with inner demons means dragging out the story,
but it also lengthens that OODA loop. Which means you're now writing
a different story. Young writer, feel free to write the story on your
heart. But let your characters be true to themselves. Not only to the
things you already know. You don't have to research yourself to death
when writing someone or something new, but making it real is worth
the time and effort.
Let
your men be men. Soldiers who doubt themselves don't survive long on
the battlefield, so they learn to either ignore their internal issues
or resolve them to the individual man's satisfaction. Ignoring an
unresolved issue can lead to a whole host of other problems, of
course, but that's a story for another day...
