Not Too Many One-Dimensional Characters

In a previous blog post, “The Other Characters in Your Story” (https://www.apirateontheprairie.com/post/the-other-characters-in-your-story), I discussed the idea that people will play different roles in your life, that these people will have varying degrees of importance and significance in your story, that you probably shouldn’t give any individual more attention than he or she deserves, and that you probably shouldn’t make gaining anyone’s approval your highest priority. In today’s blog post, I want to encourage you to not reduce all of the characters in your life’s story to one-dimensional characters.

Now admittedly, there will be some stock characters in your story. If you encounter a “helpful store clerk” or a “belligerent drunk,” you likely don’t need to spend a great deal of time and energy contemplating what motivates that person and trying to flesh out who they are as people. You deal with the person and you move on with your life. Just remember that none of us are really that simple and easy to define and don’t reduce everyone in your story to simple, one-dimensional characters with no depth and simple, easily defined and obvious motivations, emotions, values, dreams, and desires.

Yes, the person that broke your heart may be rigid, self-centered, and lack empathy. Yes, he or she may have been unnecessarily cruel and insensitive. Yes, he or she may have acted like an antagonist or even a villain. But it is entirely possible that he or she, like you, is largely just trying to get through life without the benefit of a script and a rehearsal.

We have all likely acted in a way that we regret. We may wish that we could turn back the hands of time and do things differently. But barring a miraculous event or a technological breakthrough that allows us to travel back in time and make changes in the timeline, we will never get that opportunity. Whatever decisions we have made and whatever actions we have taken, we will have to live with those decisions and those actions. Oh, we may have an opportunity to take steps to ameliorate the negative effects of any mistakes or bad decisions on our part. But the past is the past and we own our mistakes whether or not we choose to accept them. The same is true of the people that we have encountered and that we will encounter in life.

He or she may have treated you poorly. He or she may have been brutally unkind. He or she may have burned the bridges that once linked you and you may be understandably reluctant or even hostile to the idea of rekindling a relationship. In your story, he or she may have become the villain. He or she may have had a role in shaping a particularly dark chapter in your story. But he or she may not have always been the villain in your story and even villains may be complex characters with their own unique and perhaps conflicting desires, emotions, goals, and motivations. You can certainly choose to think of someone as a simple, one-dimensional villain. Particularly in the aftermath of a heartbreak, such thinking might get you through the day and the night and help you to come to terms with what happened. But that outlook almost certainly isn’t accurate, charitable, or fair. Mistakes, miscalculations, misjudgments, and missteps are part of the human experience.

Similarly, you probably haven’t met too many saints and perfect people. You shouldn’t reduce those caring, compassionate, forgiving, generous, kind, and loving individuals that you do encounter to mere caricatures. One, because it overlooks the fact that being caring, compassionate, forgiving, generous, kind, and loving is a choice worthy of acknowledgement and respect. Two, because he or she has almost certainly fallen short on occasion and/or will fall short in the future of any unreasonable expectations to be perfect.

A great story isn’t likely to be dominated by one-dimensional characters. There will be some one-dimensional characters in your story. Quite possibly most of the characters in your story will be one-dimensional characters. But the important ones and the ones that matter the most likely are not. And the rest are really only one-dimensional to you. That isn’t the case for them and it isn’t the case for everyone that meets and knows them. In fact, we are almost certainly one-dimensional characters for many of the people that we have encountered and will encounter. That doesn’t mean that we ARE one-dimensional. If someone rates being remembered, we should probably remember that they are more than just a short description with no depth and no complexity. That is true even if we choose not to dig deeper when reflecting upon the people who have crossed our paths and left some kind of mark upon our lives.