Last Friday, I was driving home from dropping off the kid at his school. I was on Washington, (a busy street here in Ogden), when I came upon a parked Semi Truck blocking half of the street. I turned down Radio Disney and took a deep breath.
I knew I had to merge from the right lane into the left in order to get around the Semi, but the cars behind me wouldn't let me through. I had my turn signal on as I scooted forward, waiting for a space. When I was almost to the semi, there was a wide enough space on the left for me to fit into, so I started to speed up. That's when the jerk in the silver car behind me decided he wasn't going to let me merge.
He sped up to block me. I was too close to the semi to do anything but hit the brakes. The jerk in the silver car turned and looked at me when he sped by me. He had this obnoxious smug "I'm a winner, and you're a loser" look on his face, which quickly disappeared when he turned back to the road and noticed the car in front of him had slowed down.
Nobody got hurt, but three cars were involved in the accident.
I'm very lucky that I didn't get hit.
Take that, common decorum.
There's a reason why we like to cheer on the underdog.
Justice.
We've all been treated unfairly in one situation or another. If you think with me for a second, a thousand examples will come up. When the boy you like doesn't like you, or when you're ignored when you have the right answer, or when someone you love gets sick, or is mocked, or is mean. So many times, there is nothing you can do to rectify the imbalance of being fair.
But that's life. Life isn't fair.
Fiction, however, doesn't have to have that rule. In stories, the underdog can...and often will...win. When the under dog wins, all of us who've felt like an underdog, find a way to win vicariously. If the Scale of Justice finds balance, the reader will put the book down and smile, because things make sense in the end. Things are fair. Justice is satisfied.
Wish fulfillment. The good guys win, or else the bad guys somehow become good guys, and then everybody finds a way to win.
See, happy ever after doesn't mean that the guy gets the girl, or that the story has to end in a wedding. It doesn't mean that the wimpiest team will win the championship, or any other Plot By Number ending. What it means is that the readers put the book down and smile. A happy ending doesn't mean that the characters all end up happy. It means that the reader does.
Readers are smart. Upset the balance of justice, and they'll know if things aren't right yet, it's not the end. That pursuit of fictional justice will add suspense to your story, and keep your readers in the book. But there's a balance. Too much fairness, and you have a Mary-Sue character, who just magically wins at everything. Too little fairness, and the reader might put the book down because it's too depressing. It's all about hope, beating the crap out of your characters, and then a heaping of hope again.
I've been slacking on everything I need to be doing lately, in order to watch Freaks and Geeks on Netflix. It's brilliant, largely because of the way they use justice, and Jason Segal.
In Freaks and Geeks, things are never one hundred percent fair, but they never one hundred percent suck either. The cute boy likes the girl, but he's a stoner. The geeks get teased, but have moments of glory. The smart girl makes dumb decisions, and has to face the consequences. It's a story that doesn't lie about what High School is like, and it doesn't make the kids that go to the school grown ups. No one has a hair stylist, or a clothing stylist, or an uncontrollable urge to take their clothes off. They are teenagers; emotional, shortsighted, hopeful, oblivious, still stuck in the bubble of High School, desperate to ignore anyone who tells them that the future is coming. It's brilliant and sad, and escapism, and reality, and much, much, too short.
Watch it. Watch the balance of justice in your WIP, and watch out for others who want to merge.
~Sheena
What I'm reading now: Just finished Princess Paisley by Chautona Havig ( Self published book available for free on Amazon.)
What I'm still writing now: Ironwood Letters. Sorry, ladies. Five false starts. I'm on the right track now.
