Contradiction When Writing Characters

Among all the traits, features, and appearances you give your character when writing your story or novel, one of the things you have to worry about is contradiction. You want them to seem real, unless you are writing intentionally against this (an artistic stance we will discuss later). Yet, believe it or not, characters without a little sense of contradiction seems absurd in and of itself.

Take a step away from writing and look at your own life, or the lives of people you know. I know for myself there are times when I feel one way, and when presented with the same situation by another person, or in another place, I act completely different. We, as people, have a sense of contradiction within all of us.

For example, let’s look at someone you meet at a party. He’s real nice, entertaining and funny, and seems full of energy. Look at his home life, and the sparkle may fade quickly. You could find there he is ill-attentive, boring, talks monotonously, and ignores both wife and kids.

Seemingly these contradict, yet we have all heard of situations just like this (or similar ones). While writing, remember that some, not all, people do act in ways that go completely against themselves.

For a literary example, we could talk about Edith Wharton’s, “House of Mirth.” Her main character, Lily Bart, wants to marry a rich husband. With all her grace, charm, beauty, and ability to attain the limelight of parties, this seems less than simple and more like inevitable. However, whenever she becomes close to a rich and eligible bachelor, she does something to shatter the relationship.

But, also keep in mind there are blatant contradictions that should not be written. Don’t have an accountant who cannot do math, yet we see a scene where they clearly are doing math. This writing will not go far, and unless for comedic purposes will drive your readers away (or unless you can build up extraordinary circumstances where this can work both ways).

So remember, the big C word is not a bad thing to implement when writing characters, it often leads to someone more real and less contrived.