GOING TO THE DARK SIDE

by Deborah Elliott-Upton

My friend recently said, “You only see the good in people.”

I almost smiled, but caught myself in time. Our relationship is new and neither of us have spent enough time together to really know each other’s true personality. To me, she’s the one who consistently believes everyone’s intent is honorable.

“That’s not true,” I said. “I just keep trying to see the good in them until I finally admit maybe they’re on short supply. And to be honest, the flaws are more interesting, especially to a writer.”

Everyone has flaws. I’m sure there were some days when even Mother Teresa said something she wished she could take back. Perhaps she’d been tired or disappointed. But, I am sure it probably happened sometime in her life.

“You don’t really know a person until you have observed his behavior with a child, a flat tire, when the boss is away, and when he thinks no one will ever know.” — anonymous

A writer asked me to look over her manuscript before she sent it off to a national contest. This was a big one that could make a writer’s career jump into the big league. A caveat of such a contest is their previous year had over 2,500 entries. “Competition will be fierce,” she said, adding, “Another pair of eyes to proofread is always a good thing.” The story was good. The premise was good. The set-up and location were good. But, the ending was predictable and worse, throughout the story every person was too damn nice.

Identifying with a character in a story is important, but if she were a Pollyanna, wouldn’t we grow tired of everything about her being perfect all the time?

Bad things happen even to the nicest people (and characters) and I expect them to react in a not-so-nice manner when it does.

“The dark side I sense in you.” — Yoda

It’s easy to ride the route where the guys in black must be villains and the ones in the white are heroes. Bring in the halos (albeit created with extra bright, white lighting) surrounding the heroes so the audience will recognize them right off is an easy, lazy-writer tactic. Writing that the hero never has any doubts, bad habits or faults is not just bad writing, it’s boring.

The same is true with villains who are depicted with black hearts, having done nothing redeemable in their life. Those are the easiest to spot in a mystery and no doubt the reason a considerable amount of manuscripts are not published.

Consider Johnny Cash’s soulful lament in “A Boy Named Sue.” Throughout the song, we are told about the horrible father who abandoned his family, but even worse, “ … before he left, he went and named me Sue.” Sue lives for the day he runs into his father so he can relate — with premeditated violence — how awful it was to travel through life with such a feminine name, only to discover the father had the best of intentions knowing he’d have to grow to be tough on his own. The father would not have interested us if he’d been labeled a caring father at the beginning of the song.

My favorite heroes have always had flaws. I like that George Bailey didn’t want to stay in Bedford Falls and give up his dreams of traveling. I like that Huck Finn hated school, lied as often as not and ran away. I like that Mike Hammer wasn’t the guy I’d take home to meet the parents. C’mon, admit it: this is why Captain Jack Sparrow is so darn appealing. The guy is multi-faceted. Not completely bad – he is, after all, a pirate – and not completely a good guy even if he does row back to the ship when he could have escaped. Okay, I agree: having him look like Johnny Depp helps a lot, too.

Maybe it’s just me, but the flawed characters – whether they are fictional or the ones I meet in the real world – are the most interesting. Maybe we should ignore Mom’s advice and not always “make nice.” What about you? Do you have a favorite flawed character – or are you just one?