LogFAQs > #963608115

g0ldie posted...

of course, the writers create everything about the characters, from personality to motivations to conflicts to resolutions, and so on, but idk what the point of being pedantic about this in particular

The point is that characters should feel like they're acting the way they would act. There are terms like "Plot Induced Stupidity" which describe those weird moments in a story where a character who is normally very smart, careful, and level-headed will do something absolutely ridiculous for the sake of making certain events happen the way the author wants them to happen.

It's a cheat device for writing--if you realize your characters are too smart or too pragmatic to make the story happen in a particular way, you just...make them act unlike themselves, like taking direct control of an NPC in a video game to force things to happen in a certain way.

When writing a fully-realized character, there is, on some level, a sense that the character is making their own decisions and the author is merely describing those decisions to the reader. When you write a story as if you're playing with action figures as an eight-year-old, where anything goes and there's no sense of consistency, then discerning audiences can tell that you're forcing the characters' hand a bit too much in order to serve your desired outcomes.