The Finger-Pointer

By
Oh, I do believe we all know this person.   As part of the Human Observation Project, let's give them a little attention.


"I didn't that!"  "It wasn't me!"  "If you want to know, speak to Chester."


Poor Chester, he gets the blame for everything.  Heck, you could exchange the name for Joe, Carey, Ester.  It doesn't really matter, because it's always anyone else's fault, even when it's their own. These type of people, "the finger pointer", warrant such little respect from those around them.


For some reason, they see themselves elevated from the common masses where humans are humans, and to "err is to be human".  They believe that saying applies to everyone but themselves, because surely they couldn't be in the wrong.


And what gets me is it doesn't take much for them to lift up their hand and direct attention elsewhere.  It can something as minor as where missing paperwork is.  You know, the person you ask if they pulled an invoice out for so-and-so.  You get the five-minute spiel about how they put it back.  They reassure you it still wouldn't be on their desk.  Then twenty minutes later, when you've almost succumbed to no hope of finding the "missing" paperwork, voila!,  it appears out of nowhere like a magical fairy came about and dropped it within your sight.  Coincidence?  I don't think so.  Or, and this is a huge or, they actually deliver it to your hands, they have a story to support their early denial.  "Chester, must have put it there."  Who cares - seriously?


Anyway, how can we apply this human observation to our writing?  Simple.  Assign this weakened characteristic to someone.  Maybe a minor character, maybe a main - that's up to you.  But my suggestion, if you're going to apply this one, you might want to brace yourself for the repercussions that come with it.  He/she might not be the most likable person due to this quality so you might want to balance them out with a really terrific trait.

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to make a comment.

Popular posts from this blog

When Family Doesn't Support Your Writing

By
If you can empathize with the title of this post, then you're not alone.  So many writers, myself included, can honestly say they have family members who don't support their writing.  Some may go so far as to tell you they don't even want to hear about what you're working on, what you've done, what your goals are.  That hurts. But think about it this way, in some ways is writing any different that an other life decisions your family may not agree with?  I'm sure, if you're like me, you get very defensive when it comes to your writing.  In fact, I'm not going to deny that it places an iron wedge in the relationships.  After all, if your focus in life is your writing, and they ask so what have you been up to ...what are you supposed to do lie, remain quiet, answer another way even though you're so excited about your current WIP you'd tell a stranger?  Ticking clocks are heard in the background while you decide.
Read more

A Big Decision...

By
Image
For those of you who know me, and follow me on Twitter, you may be aware that I’ve been debating whether to pursue publishing traditionally, or take the plunge and self-publish.  With all the “buzz” on the internet, and after great consideration, I have decided to go ahead and self-publish. I had asked myself, does this mean I’m giving up ?  And, the answer is irrevocably no.  Self-publishing used to carry a type of stigma that somehow labelled the work as adhering to a lower standard, but things have changed.  Authors are taking pride in their work like never before, and just because of the increasing ease to self-publishing, they’re not allowing this to affect the quality. In making my decision, I also considered the fact that just because a book is published traditionally it doesn’t mean that it will meet with success.  Many self-published books have received awards, honourable mentions, and have met with even more-than-modest sales.  In fact, there’s ...
Read more

Write What You Love

By
We've all heard the advice, write what you know.  There's been a lot of debate over this piece of advice.  Some see it as valid direction while others argue that there wouldn't be any books if we just wrote what we know.  For example, how many mystery novels are written by real-life detectives?  And, I guess that advice is null when it comes to fantasy genres, and historical fictional works.  No fairy from Neverland wrote a book, and no one from over a hundred years ago can write a book currently.   But, this doesn't mean that we can get sloppy, in fact more work is involved, and this is why writing what we love supersedes all, in my opinion.  How else would we get motivated, and stay motivated to see a novel through to the end? In fact isn't it love for what we’re writing what pushes us through to the conclusion even when we may find the interest in our book weaning, or through the rough middles?  Isn't it the love for what we're writing that f...
Read more