The One Thing You Need to Know About Character

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

Last night, I saw the movie The Life of Chuck directed by Mike Flanagan.

I’m a huge Flanagan fan, and an even bigger Stephen King fan. The movie was based on the short story included in If It Bleeds. Flanagan is known for his amazing horror movies so I was surprised when he decided to take this project on, but I was looking forward to seeing how he’d wrap his own vision in King’s story.

I loved it. The movie is a quiet unfolding, told in sections that are given to the viewer non consecutively. There’s a bit of a mystery. It was bittersweet and entertaining and layered with emotions that have been slowly unfolding even after I finished.

Watching movies, for me, is a way I inspire my own writing. I’m fascinated and obsessed with story in all formats, so a good television series or two hour movie allows me to have fun, relax, yet still subconsciously work.

There are no spoilers so you can keep reading if you want to see the movie! Just one description of one scene.

The most important scene was simple, yet I can’t stop thinking about it. A businessman was walking along a busy street in a small town. There’s a drummer set up on the corner who’s playing. As he approaches, she spins into a different beat, and the businessman pauses. Slowly sets down his briefcase. And begins to dance.

I’m not saying more because I don’t want to ruin the experience. It’s a simple scene. Could be a bit cheesy if not done right. Yet, the impact of watching this buttoned up business person stop his automatic routine to break into dance in front of a crowd was startling, and enlightening. It made me smile. It made me tear up.

Because it is another reminder nothing is what it seems. People are not what they seem. We hurry along in life, passing strangers, saying we’re okay with a polite or enthusiastic smile. We are people pleasers, people haters, but hoard our secrets and layers so deep, only our most intimate circle knows what’s inside. And sometimes, not even them.

A memory can cause a flood; a memory from the past as a child; some good and some bad. It reconnects us with our humanness and if we stripped away all of our roles and surfaces, we’d all be pretty much…

The same.

We are people who not only laughed or cried but danced. Or created art. Or wrote words. Or played in the dirt. Or made sand castles at the beach. Or climbed trees to the tippy top so we could look down on the world. Most of us remember what it was like to be truly free, truly ourselves, whether it was a fleeting moment, a day, a week, a month. A summer.

Or through a two hour movie. Or a book that made us remember.

If we took the time to stop rushing past and have actual conversations; to ask deep questions; there are discoveries to be found.

There are businessmen who remember how much they really loved to dance.

I remember when my son came back from senior prom. He told me he did the worm in a dance contest and flopped around on the floor because he was really bad at it. My jaw unhinged as the horror of the story hit me all at once. “Did everyone laugh at you?” I asked, already going to comfort him. “Did you stop and run out? Did your friends support you?”

My questions made him laugh and look at me like I had two heads. “Umm, no. I sucked but it was fun. What do I care if they laugh?”

I was stunned. Confused. In my world, in my mind, you didn’t do things that may embarrass you in public or make people point and laugh. But that was MY perspective. My son didn’t give a shit. He just wanted to dance.

Is there a moment that hits us where we suddenly crave to get back in touch with that hidden part of ourselves? The one that gives joy without shame or apology?

What if next time, we put down our briefcase and…dance? In the street. In front of people. And not give a shit?

Would we reclaim something once lost?

That’s how it is when we write a book. We are putting it all out on the page, into the world, without apology.

That’s how you need to approach and write character. There are no easy answers so go deeper. If your character were to do something OUT of character, what would it be? What would they dream about? What was once alive in youth or the past and is now hidden?

If we hold the space, if we ask questions, we find so much more underneath. That’s the good stuff.

Thanks to Stephen King and Mike Flanagan for this post. I’m looking at the world differently today and reminding myself to do one thing as I write my story today.

Make my characters dance.