Every book has one. The
moment when you’re reading and the words slip out of your mouth because it’s
too restricting to contain. You shake your head and say, “What an idiot!”
The character has hit the
point of sheer dumbness. It happens in every book. It can be the hero, heroine or even both. Sometimes you can see it
coming from a mile way, but other times it takes you so much by surprise that
along with uttering the words, you smack yourself on the forehead.
It’s the nature of the
romance beast. Someone has got to do something so ridiculously stupid that you
call them an idiot. If this moment wasn’t present we’d think the characters
were perfect and wouldn’t be able to identify with them. In life we do
idiotic things all of the time because we’re human. We learn and grow from
these experiences, just like the characters in the novel.
Even as a writer, while a
character’s stupid action is flowing onto the keyboard, we want to stop them
and sometimes we try, but such scenes are so fascinating and dramatic to write
that we can’t stop until we’ve finished the scene with a headshake and a
murmured, “I can’t believe she did that. Idiot.” As if we weren’t the one to
write it in the first place.
Do you think idiot moments are necessary in a novel?
I’ll leave you with one of my
favorite songs by Jimmy Fallon - Idiot Boyfriend.
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