People are quick to believe anything that reinforces what they want to believe–want the world to look like. Often what they (we) believe flies in the face of truth. For example, I want to believe we can safely have a youth football season. The mounting evidence suggests that there is little chance of that happening. I’ve yet to accept this as reality, which is the same ‘entry point’ people use into conspiracy and the lunacy of cable news. In short, there is always somebody wiling to tell you what you want to hear.
As I plan my writing I am thinking of ways to incorporate this sort of thinking into prose. Minding the NDA I am writing a mystery/whodunnit in which there are many suspects and I need to layer the story in a way that lets the reader reach conclusions before the characters do and feel good about being right–until they are wrong. Such agitations are the joy of the story, and are exactly what I believe will help it last in the memory of the readers.
I also want to use what I am learning in the world about polarization to make the distinction between who the characters like and dislike and write to that divide in a way that amplifies it from the personalities of the various players in the story.
It all sounds like intense planning, but I intend to just write it with these thoughts in mind and see how it all turns out.
Some Thoughts:
- Lately I have been aware of every pain and every twinge in my body as though tensing for some major malady. I do not think there is much wrong with me or that anything is about to happen. I have been lax on my pills and that is the sort of thing that makes those pains and twinges become a problem.