Day 49: Trivial Details

I probably haven't mentioned this before, but I'm a huge coffee buff. It's one of those little things that life just wouldn't be the same without. The blog, my stories, my college degree, my previous job, all of it is or was made a whole lot easier by bitter bean water. If I don't get my coffee in the morning, the morning simply isn't the same. You might think this sort of semi-obsession with something trivial is hardly worth mentioning, but I find it's these more trivial details that make for some of the best footholds to get some juicy character building in.

Lord James Scott Bell has given me some insight into this one as well. He has a section in 'Conflict and Suspense' where he covers small ways to heighten suspense. One of those methods is turn a trivial barrier into a huge problem. A locked door, for example, might stand between the hero and the slowly perishing victim the hero has to save. Even if the hero has the key, maybe he fumbles it and drops them, and adds several seconds to the victim's suffering. Maybe the key breaks off in the door and he has to find another way in. Maybe the key he was given is the wrong key, and the villain just set all of this up to mess with him. A locked door in this case goes from a tiny encumbrance to a massive problem.

Now, a locked door is an easy problem to encounter, but what if instead of a generic trivial issue, there was a character specific trivial issue? In my opinion, this leads to much stronger character building than a trivial problem anybody could encounter.

This morning when I got up, I realized I had run out of coffee. I ran to my local coffee shop to buy some more beans, but when I got there I realized I had forgotten my wallet. The barista knew me and let me get away with paying later, but when I got home, the beans weren't ground the right way. I didn't have any time left to run back, so I jumped right into writing this blog post, beanless and annoyed. The quality of the post wasn't quite as good as usual, and when a shocking coincidence led to an editor reading this on the very day I ran out of coffee, I missed out on a huge opportunity because they didn't like my uncaffeinated work.

Now my entire professional life hinges on a tiny detail you wouldn't really consider all that important otherwise. Hope you liked this example, and as always ...

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley