{"id":18661,"date":"2023-09-05T20:15:53","date_gmt":"2023-09-06T00:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=18661"},"modified":"2023-09-05T20:15:53","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T00:15:53","slug":"authors-notebook-the-helpless-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=18661","title":{"rendered":"Author’s notebook: The helpless hero"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo credit: Luis Villasmil. Unsplash license.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yesterday I reviewed a mystery nove<\/strong>l by Peter Rowlands. I praised the prose, but thought the plotting and characterization below par. Still, I bought the next book \u2013 which I\u2019ll review, I imagine, tomorrow. Tonight I want to comment on something that struck me as I read that second book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author Rowlands, as I see it, is still learning the craft of storytelling \u2013 as am I, to be honest. One weakness in this book is his overuse of plain luck in order to get the hero out of trouble. On two occasions in this story (so far) his hero has been at the mercy of genuine murderers, but has been saved by the timely appearance of chance passersby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is one of the big problems with that species of hero I might call \u201cthe helpless hero.\u201d <\/em>In some ways it\u2019s a great strategy to make your hero an ordinary guy (or gal) with no particular skills or experience with violence. It raises the dramatic tension nicely. The reader identifies with the character and thinks, \u201cWhat would I do in a situation like that? Could I survive?\u201d (Honest answer: probably not.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s also the problem. How does <\/em>he survive? Your James Bonds and Orphan X\u2019s possess training and well-honed instincts for self-defense and survival. But your helpless hero twists in the wind. Rowlands chose to solve that problem, in this book, by resorting to dumb luck twice. My own rule, in reading and writing, is, one dumb luck escape per customer, per story<\/strong>. Any more than that is pushing credibility. Real life offers numerous instances of repeated lucky breaks \u2013 and unlucky breaks. But fiction isn\u2019t as strange as truth. You can\u2019t push your reader\u2019s credulity. He paid good money for this book (unless, like me, he takes advantage of free promotional offers).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One work-around that\u2019s become popular \u2013 and I\u2019ve commented on it more than once in reviews \u2013 is bringing in what I jokingly call \u201cthe psycho killer friend.\u201d<\/em> He doesn\u2019t actually need to be a psycho killer, of course. Probably better if he\u2019s not, come to think of it. But he needs to be physically strong and skilled in fighting. It helps if he’s ruthless too, and condescending about the hero’s moral scruples. At some point in the past, your hero will have pulled a thorn from his paw or something, earning his undying loyalty. This PKF can be on call for\u00a0 those times when your hero knows he\u2019s going somewhere dangerous. He might even be savvy enough to shadow your hero on his own initiative, when his experience tells him his friend is being foolhardy. A nice twist can be introduced if you remove the PKF\u2019s protection as you’re building up to the final confrontation, forcing your hero to work without a net. (Best not to save your one budgeted lucky break for the climax, though. The effect of that is kind of anticlimactic.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another acceptable solution is to have the authorities (usually the police) secretly keeping tabs on your hero, ready to appear, like the US Cavalry, in the nick of time, to the hero\u2019s (and hopefully the reader\u2019s) surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any other suggestions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I reviewed a mystery novel by Peter Rowlands. I praised the prose, but thought the plotting and characterization below par. Still, I bought the next book \u2013 which I\u2019ll review, I imagine, tomorrow. Tonight I want to comment on something that struck me as I read that second book. Author Rowlands, as I see … Continue reading Author’s notebook: The helpless hero<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13,17],"tags":[2686,4872,4871],"class_list":["post-18661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading","category-writing","tag-storytelling","tag-the-helpless-hero","tag-the-psycho-killer-friend"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18661"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18663,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18661\/revisions\/18663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}