These are fry jacks—a popular breakfast item in Belize. My husband ate several during our trip, each order stuffed with different food items from savory to decadent. The crust hovers in that delectable area between a crepe and a donut, and it was hard to watch hubs devour them right in front of me. Gluten often does evil things to my stomach. Needless to say, this was a test of willpower. I passed...most of the time. When I went back to this photo, it got me thinking about characters.
Anything can spark inspiration for creatives, and these little 1000 calorie treats with their contents peeking out did the trick for this author.
Like the crust on those fry jacks, all humans have an emotional exterior of varying thickness and strength. Some people gush their feelings at the slightest mention of a touching story while others are stone-faced to a frightening degree during a horrific event. But each person also comes prepackaged with triggers that can activate an emotional deluge when the bullseye is struck.
And this is why all humans are precious, irreplaceable individuals. We all feel differently, hurt differently, and experience situations through the filters of our own unique life experiences. Truly great authors leverage these pressure points to their advantage. If a reader can cringe, laugh, and/or cry with a character who is vastly different than they are, the author has done their job well.
How does an author successfully make a character crack? Does the character have to make a choice between two equally damaging options? Do they lose their sense of identity? Is there something that skews the character's idea of right and wrong? Reality?
Or, do they simply find themselves on a forced camping trip with their dysfunctional family?
My author brain tends to store pieces of stories in all forms of movies, television shows, books, and video games. Everything that ever struck a chord with me floats around in my brain with no hope of eviction. Be careful little eyes what you see? That should be my motto. Sometimes the silliest, dumbest, or most frightening tales lodge themselves in my long-term memory. Why? Because stories are powerful tools that teach, warn, convict, horrify, and make us fall in love.
And back when I was a teenager, Daria was one of my favorite shows. From the creators of Beavis and Butthead came a comedy about cynical teenaged Daria Morgendorffer who uses her sharp wit to navigate the trials of vapid high school life. Her mother, Helen, is a workaholic control-freak who pretends to be the perfect mother, her father, Jake, is often clueless and routinely freaks out over weird and often misconstrued scenarios, and her younger sister, Quinn, is too fashion and boy-focused to associate with anyone outside her social circle.
But talking about these surface character traits is just a fingerprint on the surface. Few scenarios have more potential to root out strong emotions than close quarters with family in an abnormal location. In an episode of Daria titled "The Teachings of Don Jake," the writers beautifully cracked each character's exterior shell. Like the fry jack, their innards peeked out. The scenes became a lesson in how to convey who a character is by what they say as well as by what they don't say.
Back to the family camping trip example.
Daria and her family take a camping trip to help her father destress from suburb life. Early on, it's obvious these characters haven't been camping in many years and know little about outdoor survival. It's already getting dark before they've figured out the tents or campfire.
Just to recap the characters' surface traits...
Daria: Cynical but witty teen who cracks sarcastic jokes with a deadpan expression
Quinn: Daria's trendy little sister who values boys and appearance above all else
Helen: Daria's capable and fiery mother who demands respect and results
Jake: Daria's father who gets worked up over small issues
Each character's inner traits culminate in a campfire scene where they tell their own scary stories.
Jake's story opens with a little boy hearing a tiny splashing sound, but there's no lake nearby. Jake builds up tension with hand motions, noises, and dramatic pauses. When the boy reaches out for his sleeping father, no one is there. Jake's story is off to a good start...or so it seems. But the boy soon discovers that the "villain" isn't a lake monster or some secret killer. The splashing sounds turn out to be the boy's father sitting alone—"with a whole case of beer! Ksssh. Ksssh." Jake mimes cracking open cans and guzzling down invisible beer.
The rest of the family stares at him, unimpressed.
While ridiculous, this short story reveals how much repressed anger Jake has toward his own father. He secretly fears inferior thanks to his dad's drinking habits and vast outdoor knowledge. This fear causes Jake to overreact and get angry at little things while also trying to do a better job with his kids than his father did with him. Not bad for a one-minute-ish scene.
Moving on to Helen, Daria's mother.
Helen's story opens with a vulnerable woman who runs into a pale, brooding stranger. Helen's curled fingers and expression indicate the stranger is a vampire. Dangerous. Sexy. The vulnerable woman asks if the vampire is there to take her blood. Helen assumes a sinister expression and pauses. "Your blood? There's plenty of time for that. I'm going to take your..." Insert Jake with a shocked expression, making frantic gestures for Helen to stop. Helen's expression sobers as she looks at her teenage daughters, and she quickly says, "take your pulse!"
Not only are Daria and Quinn old enough to know what Helen meant to say instead of "pulse," Helen ousted herself as kinky yet sexually frustrated behind the workaholic front. Her husband is often aloof and stressing over minor issues, and Helen feels like she has to be both parents as well as make the bulk of the money to support their family. I love how all these details are conveyed in this quick scene.
Then, it's Quinn's turn.
We come into Quinn's story somewhere in the middle as she rambles a retelling of Cinderella. She's smiling at first as she explains the fairy godmother waving her wand and turning Cinderella's rags into a dress of silver and gold...gaudy silver and gold. Quinn's expression sours. She goes on about how bloated Cinderella looks in the dress before Helen gently interrupts and asks Quinn if she's sure her story is supposed to be scary. Quinn raises her hand and says, "Wait, I haven't gotten to the shoes yet!" End scene.
Wow. And in those few blessed seconds, we all realize that Quinn's greatest fear is looking bad and being judged for it. We also learn that not much else goes on in her head. She takes a classic poor-to-rich fairy tale and turns it into her version of a horror story. After all, what could be worse than going to a ball in a gaudy outfit?
And then Daria decides to do a classic fairytale retelling of her own: Hansel and Gretel.
She changes the ending to what would happen if the children don't escape the witch. Deadpan, Daria describes how the witch tears off and eats Hansel's arm. While the fire reflects off her glasses, Daria continues with how the witch likes how Hansel tastes and ends up devouring the rest of him "...leaving only the lower intestines for fear of bacteria." Then the witch shoves Gretel in the freezer for later. Cut away to her family's sickened expressions.
Daria wins. Not only did she succeed at horrifying her family, she inserted her knowledge of the human body and bacteria to give the magical story some practical ground. No one wants to get food poisoning, not even a witch devouring children. Daria shows she's both well-read and a good storyteller behind her blank expression and lack of enthusiasm.
These scenes prove how well the writers knew their characters. Even with limited animation, the stories come to life to convey not just who the characters are on the outside but also who they are behind the scenes. And this show is brimming with comedic scenes just like this, the likes of which I may still recall in my final days in this life. Why? Because I can't help it. They're funny. Relatable. Maybe a little too close to reality for some of us to admit.
What "scary" campfire stories would each of our characters tell? Now that is a fun question with endless possibilities.
Keep on smilin'!
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