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Your last paragraph there speaks volumes about my own writing ability. Any advice on how to overcome the handicap of being too rational? (In my writing, it mani

• scandox 10y ago
  Missed this...It's a hard problem and I struggle with it a lot. There's a few choices: 1. Identify the problems and just work on eliminating them. 2. Write about characters in a milieu in which everyone does behave in a highly rational way - to be honest I don't know of such an environment - but kinda sounds interesting. 3. Abandon conventional narrative techniques. However this doesn't work if you want to write genre fiction, or anything that will be widely read - i.e. you're in the experimental zone! 4. One writer I know uses Myers–Briggs personality types to determine each character's behaviour and lets their actions in each situation flow from that. In fact he's a good writer and the technique (however he uses it) really works, though I would have been a sceptic if someone told me that is what they do. The thing that fascinates me is how some writers can create tension in the smallest things. Some writers can generate drama out of a missing cat, or the fleas on a dog. It's all about tapping into extreme subjective reactions, while showing the rational justification the character supports it with... Good luck.