Know Thy Character

I had turned in a chapter on a project and a few days later, I got an email asking why I did a certain thing in a certain way in a particular paragraph. It wasn't asked in a mean, bad or impolite way, but it made me stop and ask myself "Why did I do that?"

My answer was two-fold, and it's interesting of what I consider to be essential to the bigger picture.

The basic situation was a minor character (police officer) said "We found the bullet" and the main character (the detective) said "Cool."

1. I did it because, although it seemed jarring -- or flippant at the very least -- it was consistent with the character. Another detective might have only nodded, or said "Okay." But this one said "Cool" because . . . well, that is what they would say.
2. The second part of my answer would be internal, not one I'd include in my email reply . . . and that would be that all of this is somewhat second nature to me. I don't sit around for an hour and think, debate, consider or re-consider how a character is going to reply, react or not react. I automatically know how the character will behave because I really know that character.
   

In another project in which I was "fixing" someone else's manuscript, the character was a bit of a grouse. So when the author had the character answer the phone "Hello?", I changed it to a snarky "What." When the author asked me about it, I said "Do you really think Oscar the Grouch would be polite enough to say 'Hello?'"

The response I got back was "Well, maybe not, but he wouldn't say 'What'."

"Then what would he say?"

I then explained the character's state of mind -- he'd been through some nasty events over the last 24 hours, was short on sleep, was hungry, had just gotten home, and wants nothing more than to take a shower, eat a sandwich and climb into bed . . . when the phone rings.

The bottom line is, know thy character. It makes everything go much smoother, and a little quicker.