Chances are, dear readers, you have a vague idea who the two cartoon princesses are in the
photo collage above. If not, a hint: Anna and Elsa, stars of Disney’s massive hit FROZEN.
FROZEN is a movie loved by many and its songs are ones you can
probably hum along with even if you haven’t seen the movie or bumped into a
five-year-old singing “Let it Go” at the top of her lungs in the cereal aisle
at the grocery store.
But what you may not have noticed—at least I didn’t until I
saw this post on Tumblr—was that Anna and Elsa haven’t done themselves many favors
in critical thought department.
The above collage has the caption: “These two run a
country.”
Yes, they run a tiny kingdom, but they are constantly, painfully
saying, “What?” “Wait?” and combinations of those and other “I’m really
confused and don’t understand what you’re saying” expressions.
Obviously, many people saw that movie and never noticed
these princesses’ penchant for speaking before thinking. I sure didn’t.
BUT, fill a whole book with conversations where your
character is constantly exclaiming, “Wait, what?” and you likely won’t have
your reader thinking the character is nearly as smart or interesting or worthy
of any sort of praise whatsoever.
Case in point: I once read a manuscript blind for someone
where the main character was supposed to be this special person with knowledge
that could save an empire (yes, it was dystopian). But this main character was
constantly and I mean CONSTANTLY having things explained to her. She never was
able to put two and two together. Even worse, it was always men in this world
explaining things. Not exactly what many young girls would want to read, even
though this would-be author was aiming it straight at the high school set.
After reading probably a thousand variations of “Wait,
what?” I knew there was no way I was ever truly going to trust that this character
could save her people or was worth any of the praise dripped on her. And I
wanted to like her. I really did. But there was no way we were going to be
friends. And I felt disappointed with the whole manuscript.
So, this is a challenge to you. When you’re revising, see
how many times you rely on a crutch such as “Wait, what?” to get to the heart
of whatever information needs to be discovered in a scene. You might surprise
yourself at how easily you let your character get away with something
completely against his or her character.
