I, Writer: Those Other People in the Story

I, Writer: A Person Hit My Car

I woke on Saturday to learn someone hit my car in my driveway in the night. Thank you whoever you are for pulling into my driveway and trashing my taillight.

That bit of reality is the point of this post. Life is messy and nonsensical. Anything can happen. Mundane little aggravating things can happen and interrupt life. People can hit your car and drive away while you sleep then carry on with their lives. You have to pick up the plastic and go buy a replacement.

Every character lives in a world where other people have motivations. Your protagonist is the hero of their story but so is every other person. Intersecting characters can be one scene wonders, the personification of a joke, just a prop to fill space or they can be useful and justify their own existence by changing the course of the narrative.

People do things for reasons. A person is desperate to get home because they has to take care of a sick dog and they leave before your protagonist can arrive at their office. A person is running down the street to reach an appointment and doesn't pay attention to where they're going and they run into an open manhole so the street is shut down while EMTs work. The stories of the other characters can crossover and make your character's life harder or easier.

Their actions tell us who they are. The nice part of my brain is saying that maybe the driver didn't realize my innocent car had been hit. The normal part of my brain is angry at the situation. The mean part of my brain isn't allowed an opinion because that part just wants to be angry and curse a lot. This person has changed my story. It's a subtle shift in the narrative but it's a real one. It's a minor plot line in my life that will be resolved (I hope quickly). In the elevated drama of a novel's world, this would tail light be an obstacle for me to overcome and the effects would ripple out.

Your character isn't like the driver in car commercials with perfectly empty roads. Your character is living in a world with traffic and hits and runs.

Work carefully and thoughtfully.

Postscript

I am mad at the person that hit my car and made me deal with this. I'm consciously not using gendered pronouns because while writing this I kept saying "He hit my car" but I don't know that. It could have been a woman.