Writing - Balance

 I remember growing up in the 1960s and 70s and seeing a menu of soap operas on TV. I also remember when I stopped watching some of them and the reasons why.  Coronation Street was the first programme of that type, and it was soon joined by Emmerdale Farm and eventually EastEnders. 

I stayed as a loyal fan of Coronation Street for the longest of all three, even though my parents were still watching all three many years after I’d left home. The reason I stopped watching soap operas, I remember telling someone, was that they were too close to real life.

Putting it simply, I think I like to be entertained rather than coached in social psychology and sociology. This side of my nature comes across in the type of programmes I watch these days. I enjoy a good police drama, murder mystery and who-done-it. However, I can easily be put off when the human frailty of the lead policeman seems more important than the crimes that they're trying to solve, and it seems to me that the screenwriters and authors are starting off from the premise that the human frailty is what people are more interested in than the actual crimes being committed.

 So when it comes to the material I like to watch, I look for the crime and hope that the programmes do not have an alcoholic lead character, a Chief Inspector with family problems or a lawyer who is struggling with his sexuality. 

 Now that is not to say that those issues aren’t important, and it is essential to make your characters as human as possible. I’m not into superheroes all the time, but there are plenty of people on the earth who've had problems, lived through them, and are functioning normally, so why not have people with their investigative skills who are functioning normally? These are the reasons behind Patrick Steele, the lead character in my novels. He is not a superhero; he's not perfect, he has had frailties in his life, and one of the reasons why he is engaged in the activities as an adult is because of the issues he had when he was a teenager. The information is described in the earlier books and particularly in book 5, which is entitled Inceptus. 

So the idea of getting the balance right, the title of this blog suggests, is to guide fellow authors away from human failings. Yes, they can be interesting, yes, it's important that for reality’s sake, your characters are showing some human feelings, but to remember that you are out there trying to entertain.

 God Bless