Jessica Strawser: Building Suspense by Acting Out of Character

By Margaret S. Hamilton

Jessica Strawser, the Cincinnati-Hamilton County Library Writer-in-Residence, gave a fascinating workshop at the Main Library on June 8^th, during which she discussed how out of character behavior propels a fiction plot. Strawser writes women’s fiction with a suspense component, a genre in which unreliable narrators are commonplace.

Why does a child bully his classmates on the playground? Does he act out of frustration or anxiety or is he seeking attention? Or is he cruel, finding satisfaction by hurting others? Why does a woman knowingly speed through a school zone? Is she preoccupied or willing to risk a ticket?

After establishing a character, Strawser stated that a writer can find a good reason for out of character behavior. She described an example from her first book, Almost Missed You: Violet’s husband, Finn, takes their child and disappears, the inciting incident for the novel. In Khalil’s The Hate U Give, a teen deals drugs to protect his mother. Mr. Darcy is stiff and judgmental in Pride and Prejudice, struggling to hide his fondness for Elizabeth Bennett. Minny reaches her tipping point in The Help, and bakes her “terrible awful” pie.

Strawser summed up justifying out of character behavior: either something tips the balance or pushes the character’s button, or the character succeeds in covering up her predisposition to aberrant behavior until she slips. She gave us some writing prompts:

No one knew…

She had never…

On the day of his wife’s funeral…

When the text message came…

But her pride…

But the sound of windchimes…

Strawser used a page-long excerpt from Abby Fabiaschi’s I Liked My Life, during which Eve struggles to enjoy prom while pondering her mother’s recent suicide. “Pre-prom is nothing more than a parade of mothers showing off how close they are with their daughters. The fussing, the makeup, the pictures, it’s all a performance, and tonight gossiping about my dysfunctional family is the main act.”

Strawser emphasized how a person’s speculation about true character plays out:

I thought I knew you. Jay Gatsby turns out to be not at all what he first seems in The Great Gatsby. Other examples include Fenton and Steinke’s The Good Widow, Paris’s Behind Closed Doors, and Belle’s The Marriage Lie.

I thought I knew myself. Something happens to impair a reliable character’s judgment in Baldacci’s Amos Decker series. Additional examples are Scottoline’s Keep Quiet, Drake’s Just Between Us, and Gardner’s Find Her.

I know better than to trust you. An unreliable character tries to do something reliable. Examples include Flynn’s Gone Girl, Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train, and Ware’s The Woman in Cabin Ten.

Strawser discussed an excerpt from Joshilyn Jackson’s The Almost Sisters, as the pregnant Leia describes her step-sister’s disheveled appearance and bizarre actions: “Rachel sputtered out mid-profanity when she came into the archway and saw that it was me. She skidded to a stop just inside the dining room. She was barefoot, which Rachel never was. With crazy, tangled hair, which Rachel never had. And two black eyes.”

Strawser emphasized how and when to apply out of character actions. Who is too predictable? Who should be more suspicious? Is your protagonist too good or your villain too bad to be believed? Whose shift might be a good or unwelcome surprise for the protagonist? Who is tired of playing by the rules? Who is starting to annoy your reader?

After Strawser’s workshop, I considered my debut traditional amateur sleuth mystery. Does Lizzie Christopher act out of character? She surprises herself by showing empathy for the murder victim and her daughter’s bullying classmate. Her lover and co-parent struggles with a professional dilemma, which I’ve enhanced a bit to show he has more on his plate than keeping Lizzie safe. Lizzie’s sidekick, Officer Bethany Schmidt, grows to appreciate Lizzie’s “outside the box” insights which lead to identifying and arresting the murder suspects.

Writers, do you employ acting out of character to enhance your writing? Readers, do you appreciate out of character moments?