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Out of curiosity, Is it easiest to write about a deeply flawed, even perhaps handicapped protagonist, or one who is nearly perfect, and very high IQ?
Gwen
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Comments
Flawed...
To paraphrase Det. Harry Callahan, "A woman has to know her limitations." As deeply flawed as I am, I find it perhaps easier if not at all easy to write about what I l know; being a human who has room for improvement.
Love, Andrea Lena
Hmmm
That may depend on the intelligence of the writer. A pet peeve of mine is when a character is set up to be really smart and then does something incredibly dumb because the plot has been badly written to require it. That destroys the suspension of disbelief for me far too often in both books or shows / movies. The whole 'why didn't they just do 'x' like anyone with their training / education / intelligence would have done...' moments feel cheap. Just my quick thought anyway before wandering off to bed. (G'nite to anyone else heading that direction!)
Smart People Do Stupid Things
Having a high IQ is no guarantee of making good decision. My brother scored 164 and made many, many stupid and bad decisions.
On the other hand I prefer intelligent protagonist because they seem to be easier to place in predictable positions.
Last thought. I have another brother with a much lower IQ who is the nicest person I know and who almost always makes good decisions. Except learning how to play the tuba and starting a polka band.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Playing Tuba
In my early teens I was a very good Tuba Player. My Professor wanted me to learn at least 4 other instruments. I eventually stopped playing. I would not understand his tears until years later. I am ashamed of stopping.
Gwen
Even the smartest people
do dumb stuff from time to time. Just as everyone has at least one flaw in their character.
Samantha
Deeply Flawed
How about a deeply flawed person with a very high IQ?
-- Daphne Xu
High IQ
Perhaps a very smart person, great with Music, but hot temper? And perhaps as she matures, she will become more mild.
Thanks
Gwen
We are not who we write
Not all of my stories are first person but a lot of them are, and I try to make each of my story tellers different.
If I may say it, I think that writers are observers of personalities, and much like actors, we can climb into the mind of a person and let them tell the story the way they see it. That is what I do anyway.
Most of them are educated because I am (I don't know my IQ), but some are a long way short of that - like my recent story "Beauty Boy".
But some have told me that I have a talent for first person batshit crazy, so I am not sure what that says about me!
Maryanne
The Smartest people???
Okay. In gaming parlance a “super-capable, completely un-flawed and intelligent person” is a Mary-Sue. My apologies to Mary Poppins.
Mary-Sue’s seldom exist in real life although some persons do, on occasion, come very close to that category. Both my sisters ( one older and one younger ) rated exceptionally high in I.Q. tests but they, like myself, had our flaws.
I attribute this not to the ability of our brains to form quick and accurate deductions but to the educational system. A student is unlikely to teach themselves beyond the interest in a subject imparted by a “teacher”. High enthusiasm on the part of the teacher and the student is far more likely to go out and learn more on their own. Low enthusiasm...
So flaws are a part of all of us and usually related to that which we have learned about any given subject or interest. High intelligence ( I.Q.???) might grant a greater ability to absorb and retain data, but the manner in which it is presented decides whether we will devote much time, energy, and “intelligence” to that data. ie. We all have flaws, some apparent, some not so.
There was another comment made which quoted an I.Q. level. My sisters were somewhat above that.
They were quite successful, each in their own way.
For some unknown reason, they each perished within the space of one year. Denise was about five years older than myself, and Jill was five years younger. I miss them.
POOKA
Intelligence
Hi Pooka
And what an interesting assessment of intelligence.
I said that I did not know my IQ because I am not interested. Employers have it, and say it is high, but I have known people with high IQ whom I consider some of the dumbest people on the planet. Education has helped me - I thank the fact that I had a good one. But I have a retentive memory. I still remember poems from my childhood, and taxa names for plants and fish, and how to count in 23 languages.
But yes, from our perspective to be able to tell stories is something else. In my experience those with high IQ's have a problem in expressing themselves. Often they are worried that the listener will not be smart enough to understand.
But perhaps I misunderstood the topic of this blog? We can all write about people less intelligent than others: "The fool stared blankly".
I thought that this was about first person story telling, which is most of what I do. In the last 15 stories I have posted 10 are in the first person:
"Fan" is a young boy, less intelligent than me, but smart.
"Tit Man" is told by a stupid man, whose fascination for breasts ends up with him getting his own.
"Domination" is told by the doctor. I have tried to keep his arrogance in his attitude to his patient, and his captor, but in the end he finds himself passive and yielding (chemistry?)
"Twister" is the story told by the cop who finds "her". I got into this character. He is not so smart - methodical to the point of being dull, but has a strong sense of justice and is a person looking for love. Did I get it right?
"Beauty Boy" is not smart. Here the language might betray that I am more clever than to person speaking.
"For Daddy" is told by the father and we can judge him as unpleasant - he is. He is not "batshit crazy" as I mentioned in my first comment, but he is without conscience I think.
"AGD" is told by a scientist. He might be more intelligent than me.
"The Translator" is told by a lesbian, so I am outside my usual cast. She is intelligent and I think that shows, but the overall impression I wanted to give was her sense of betrayal.
"Office Story" is told by a transwoman, but it is not about her transition but another's. She is clever, but here the dominant emotion is envy, and that colors her narrative.
For me the intelligence is less important than the personality and the driving forces.
A better question might be: Which is the hardest emotion to write from?
Let's make that our next blog topic.
Maryanne
People
I just write about regular people who get caught up in something beyond their control.
Melanie
Flawed characters
A character with the odd quirk or two can sometimes add interest and perhaps a lifelike quality to a story.
I wonder how many writers start with a defect in a character and work back as opposed to using the defect to cover an earlier plotslide.
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