Everyone (and Every Character) Has Different Abilities
Reflecting Real-Life Competence Variations in Characters
This is part of my “Art of Noticing” series, in which I learn, find, or discover the things around me that usually go unnoticed and turn them into an endless source of creative inspiration.
NOTE: The last of these “Noticings” blog posts will run on April 13th. I’m going to keep recording the 9-minute daily podcast on which these posts are based, though, so if you want to keep your dose of daily Noticings, be sure to subscribe to the Art of Noticing podcast here on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
(You could also listen here on Substack, but that’s a miserable way to listen to a podcast so I don’t recommend it. Do yourself a favor and use a podcast app so you can listen on your commute or at the gym or something.)s.
Yes, I’m going to write about volleyball again. It’s like half my world. You’re lucky half of these aren’t about volleyball.
We’re in the college recruiting phase right now for my daughter, and that means exploring different NCAA division levels. We’d seen the University of Texas at Austin play, and that team is full of superhumans. But that’s the top of NCAA D1, so we also watched a lower-level D1 team, a D2, and a D3.
What gave me the idea for this noticing was realizing that there’s an enormous difference between the UT game and the lower-tier D1. With some tweaks, I actually thought my daughter’s current national-level club team could have kept up with the lower D1 team, but never with UT.
The lesson wasn’t about volleyball. It was about the way that “skill disparity” is in the real world, and how we as storytellers should most accurately show it to our readers. Because the thing is, lower-tier D1 teams ARE STILL D1 TEAMS. They’re among the best of the best, but there are much-better-than-them teams out there, and others that are worse … but within each level, there are champions.
Here's how this "noticing" can influence my stories and art:
Showing a Range of Competencies
When writers show champions, they usually show the elite amongst the elite, but that’s just not realistic. Few people compete at elite levels, and you can be a champion at any level.
It’s interesting to me to remember that D3 colleges still have great teams, and that there is a D3 national champion. It’s a huge leap from that to the Big Ten champion or something, but there are ranges and brackets, not just “the one best.”
Growth and Progression in Character Arcs
Skills and talents aren’t static, and they exist on a spectrum. Keeping that in mind lets us write better abilities and character arcs — giving characters room to grow, or to decline.
If you’re realistic about the way real skills play out, then characters can evolve, improve, or regress in their abilities, just life real-life skill development.
Reflecting Real-World Skill Disparities
Incorporating the disparity of skills and expertise in real-world scenarios (like sports or professions) adds a layer of veracity to stories. It challenges the notion of uniform competence (which we’d never claim exists, but stories often paint it that way) and opens avenues for exploring themes of struggle, triumph, and the pursuit of excellence in various fields.
Acknowledging that there’s a spectrum of skills and talents in characters not only enhances the realism of stories, but also gives us and our readers an opportunity to explore a wide range of human experiences.
Want to learn on the go?
Reading these posts is only one way to get these lessons. Every post here has a companion episode of my 10-minute, multi-times-weekly podcast, The Art of Noticing.
WANT MORE?
Members get extra posts like this one, bonus podcast episodes, and more every week … all for the price of a fancy coffee. Learn about membership here.
When writers show champions...
My favorite champions are those imperfect people who have to dig deep within themselves to find the inspiration the need. Often, the talents they use to save the day are those they don't even realize they possess. As they struggle forward, new aspects of their character are disclosed to themselves, and of course, the reader. From rookie detective to crazy cat lady to stranded spaceship captain to cub reporter. Their characters are not created but revealed.