Something that can really stand out in a story while you’re reading it...and not in a good way...is the flip flopping nature of the characters that are supposed to be carrying the whole project on their shoulders and moving things forward. You see...there’s a point when the characters use the story to grow and evolve, and times when the story uses the characters to grow and evolve. The problem comes from writers who don’t keep it in mind that these two motivations have to be able to work together in order to create a full experience where neither side is really visible. And when they don’t...what you get is a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde situation that creates plot holes, conflicting information, and inconsistency of character voices. That last one is the most notable.

So, today, I’d like to talk about consistency being maintained on both sides of this equation, what the equation is, and how to have them work together for the best possible presentation of your fiction. It isn’t really all that difficult, n fact, many writers do it naturally without putting much thought into it at all. But sometimes it helps to know what to look for and how to bring out the best in your story. It’s all about learning where to focus your attention when you go back and read it over again. If it only makes for a super tiny bit of a difference in the final product, at least it will be a positive one.

Let’s get started...

Let me begin with the two sides that we’ll be working with in this article. To some degree, you really do need both, in my opinion. You can’t really have your character take on a definitive arc without a story that allows them to do so or is willing to explain why it happened in the first place. Well, why did they find the strength to fight the high school bully? Why did they decided to end their relationship after dealing with it for so long? Why did this once selfish character decide to stop and do something charitable for a change? How did they learn the spirit of Christmas? Whatever it is...there has to be a series of events in your story that will lead them up to that point in a logical way. Through those events you can depict a variety of results from the character interactions, whether positive or negative, that will lead them in that direction. This is an example of the characters using the story to evolve. They are the focus. They are the driving force in all this. This is one of those cases where they story sort of moves them around with the rewards and the obstacles that are being placed in their path in order to get them to where they need to be by the time the story is over.

On the other side...you can’t have a story created simply from a series of events and not focus the burden upon the shoulders of the characters that you happen to be writing about. Your characters are the relatable sparks that you can use to get your readers to identify with their plight and feel as though they’re a part of their adventures as the story goes along. Without characters that people can engage with and form emotional attachments to...the story is just not as interesting. It’s just a bunch of stuff that happens. No rhyme, no reason, no stakes. It’s like watching a garden grow in real time. Hehehe, doesn’t make for the most thrilling of reading experiences. This means that the story needs the characters to help it grow. It needs direct motivations, it needs mistakes, it needs triumphs, it needs emotional investments, it needs action...and it uses your characters to achieve that.

Alright...so I hope that makes enough sense for us to move forward. The story is there to push the characters along, the characters are there to guide and focus the story. Cool?

Now, the big question is...what happens when these two sides are completely out of sync? This is where we get some major conflicts of interest, and both sides can end up suffering from getting yourself trapped in that pitfall.

This isn’t to say that story and character always needs to be perfectly balanced in every story you write...but I think it’s extremely important to make sure that they’re consistent. Unless it happens to be a deliberate trait of one of your characters...do whatever you can to avoid the Jekyll and Hyde syndrome. It ruins the immersion for your audience and forces them to stop so they can readjust their feelings about what’s going on. You don’t want that to happen. Believe me. Because the only thing worse than throwing your audience off with a distracting curve ball in your narrative is trying to bring them back in and come back to what you originally intended the first time around. Jerking people back and forth gets exhausting pretty quickly.

If I was writing a story about a boy who is painfully shy and in the closet, and then somebody trips him in gym class...I might approach that as a point of humiliation for him and he would lower his head, brush himself off, and would probably hurry off somewhere to be alone where he didn’t have to face the stares and hear the giggles of his classmates after such an embarrassing display. I would make sure that this even is consistent with the rest of the story (Not the first time he’s ever been picked on or laughed at). And, from the description that I gave you above about his personality and his role in the story, his character’s behavior would also be consistent. Both the story and the people in it are acting in a way that feels familiar and doesn’t distract from the way I originally built them up from the beginning.

However, if things were out of sync...it might come off as confusing or way over the top. If the story never mentioned him getting picked on by his peers before that very moment...and all of a sudden they’re tripping him in gym class for the sake of a story plot point...it feels like it comes out of nowhere. It’s like, “WTF? Why did they do THAT?” In the same respect, as a character, if I had the shy boy suddenly ball up his first, pop back up with an angry snarl, and go into full attack mode on the boy that tripped him...that would be seriously out of character for him to do that. The story never built that up effectively, so why would this be treated as though it was the ‘last straw’ where he just snapped and couldn’t take anymore. Again, this is out of sync of what we know about the story as a whole so far, and a departure from everything that you set up from the beginning. Congrats! You’ve just gotten yourself stuck in the quagmire of a Jekyll and Hyde situation. And if you think it won’t be that hard to get back to the shy boy and a non-hostile environment again without anybody remembering what just happened...you’d be wrong.

You have to focus and be aware of what you’re telling your readers and what you’re not telling them. If you wanted this event to take place in your story, then you should set up the bullying aspect of it all early on in your fiction. Have it build, and escalate, until things boil over to a point where even your bashful protagonist is forced to take action in order to make it stop. But readers should know how your main character got from point A to point B. What happened? What has he learned along his journey that made him react this way? It had to be something, right? Put that ‘something’ on display so that the story and the character compliment one another in a way that doesn’t through the narrative out of balance. Flip flopping or having things happen without any prior set up or reason can be a bewildering experience for your readers, since they may not know the story like the back of your hand like you do. They have to work together, these two sides. Support one another. You’d be surprised how quickly even a simple short story can be turned into an utter mess if you lose that connection. It’s important.

A few examples before I wrap this up. Watch this video down below, and pay attention to the character and the story, and ‘feel’ how they’re basically working in tandem to tell a short story while keeping things consistent throughout.

If you notice, the son’s attitude is pretty steady from beginning to end, even when the story element takes over and begins to guide him into an entirely different situation. You never feel like he’s acting in ways that he wouldn’t act normally, even at the very end. It’s an excellent example of holding everything together and making sure that it all stays in line to a certain degree. The story and the characters involved remain true to what we, as spectators were introduced to in the very beginning. You know? It doesn’t stray, and the story may take unpredictable twists and turns here and there, but the way the characters deal with them is consistent with what we know about them. Even if our knowledge of them and their relationship is in limited supply.

Now, take a moment to watch this short film. (Same main actor) Both the story and the characters sort of waver a bit in their behaviors or what you might be expecting from them and what you were introduced to initially...BUT, there’s still a feeling of believable action and reaction there. Nothing really feels too out of of place, nothing feels over the top or random. It’s concentrated on all of the elements that it should be, and it never throws you off with events or character behaviors that feel out of place.

There’s a growth and an evolution here...but not at the expense of making any logical sense.

Now, you may think this is a Jekyll and Hyde story...but think about it...is it really though? You’ve got characters that, even though they change and offer up some surprises here and there...there’s a build up to it. It makes sense. The story of their forward progression from who they are at the beginning towards who they are at the end...makes perfect sense. The change has been supported by the story, and the movement towards the surprise ending has been supported by the characters. Had either one of these been written without that subtle balance in there somewhere...it might have come off in a very different way. And a less enjoyable way, to be honest.

Anyway, hoping that all of this makes some weird kind of sense as you guys mull it over and apply it to your own work in your own ways, you may be able to find small opportunities here and there in your writing where you can take advantage of this little tip and teach yourselves how to think about melding the worlds of story and character together in ways that some writers never contemplate, and some readers never notice. But that’s the beauty of the art, isn’t it? Hehehe, making it all look easy when it’s not.

I hope this helps you guys in some small way! Avoid sudden changes in character behavior and story theme and tone when you’re writing. It can be a stumbling block for a lot of people. So avoid those Jekyll and Hyde situations at all costs if at all possible. Your work will be better for it, and once you know what to look for...you’ll be doing it on autopilot in no time flat!

Take care, folks! Love you lots! And I’ll seezya soon with more!