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Q&A Will an unrealistic character be out of place among other realistic ones?

You need a motivation, insanity is not a motivation. What you are proposing will break the suspension of disbelief. Does the character think it is funny? Do they have a grudge and just want to pas...

posted 5y ago by Amadeus‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-19T22:13:58Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48952
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T13:14:34Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48952
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T13:14:34Z (almost 5 years ago)
You need a motivation, insanity is not a motivation. What you are proposing will break the suspension of disbelief.

Does the character think it is funny? Do they have a grudge and just want to passively aggressively satisfy it? Are they in love and trying to tease her to get her attention or make her engage with them?

What motivation does the MC have for putting up with it? Why doesn't she anticipate it, and prevent it, or guard against it?

What you are writing just doesn't sound realistic, not even the "insanity" excuse, which is no excuse at all. Stories have to seem plausible. You can introduce magic, and pretend "scientific" objects and discoveries, but the behavior of **_humans_** in the story needs to seem plausible and have reasons, and in your story it does not.

For all the magic in The Lord of the Rings, and for all the scientific mumbo jumbo in Star Wars or Star Trek, the characters in these stories (even the intelligent Trees) still seem like human beings with plausible emotions and thinking.

Readers relate to **humans** and your guy is unrelatable.

If you want a suggestion, I'd turn them into a pet the MC loves like a child, or baby. I have dogs. A pet dog can want to play, and they are forgiven for not understanding what their master is doing, and can knock things over with their tail or by bumping into them without caring. They can jump up on you, and make you spill coffee on yourself. I had a dog once accidentally step into a tray of paint on the floor, spill it then walk across a carpet trailing paint.

Pet accidents aren't malicious. They are just clumsy, and you might be upset but it doesn't mean you are getting rid of the dog, or even staying mad at him for very long, because the dog loves you. He's going to make sad eyes at you, and you're going to forgive him. And they'll be another dog accident in the future.

You can sell that better by making some early accidents that are inconsequential, thus establishing the accident prone nature of the dog character.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-11-14T20:03:08Z (about 5 years ago)
Original score: 0