Back to our regular prompts, this post is part of Just Jot it January, and our prompt of the day is courtesy of Dan. Check out his blog here!
As a writer of stories, I do my best to make my character’s motivations clear. Like, not only are they doing this or that thing, but it’s obvious why they’re doing it.
And to take a step beyond that, I do my best to make sure they’re not doing something just for the sake of doing it, especially when the action is dangerous or stupid.
Which is why I don’t watch a lot of horror movies.
Why does the girl who’s about to be killed really need to go into the room where the killer is? Curiosity? Don’t be stupid!
I get that it causes tension for the viewer, but ugh!
If it makes me scream at the screen, it’s obvious to me there’s no plausible motivation behind the action.
If the character is walking into a dangerous situation, for instance if there’s a killer at the door and she answers it because she’s sure it’s someone she’s expecting, that’s good motivation.
But “ooh, what’s that weird noise in this dark room when I don’t have a pet and I believe I’m alone in the house?”
RUN! GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!
Because we all know curiosity kills more than the cat in a horror film.
This frustrated post is part of Just Jot it January! Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!
Thanks again to Dan for the prompt!
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