To Evolve Or Not Evolve?
Welcome to this week’s TuesdayTip.
One of the attractions of ongoing series is the evolution of characters as the books progress. In my own DCI Warren Jones series, we see Warren go from a newly-promoted DCI in a new police force, to a seasoned and respected senior detective. At the same time, his relationship with his wife Susan has ups and downs and he gets older (and hopefully wiser). Alongside him, the members of his team undergo similar changes, with new members joining and others leaving. We also see secondary characters, such as Warren’s beloved grandfather and his (not always so beloved) in-laws face challenges.
But is such evolution essential? Can characters essentially stay the same over multiple books? Perhaps the author hits on a secret formula that means they can make the protagonist essentially unchanging? Some might argue that the film version of James Bond, although reinvented by film makers over sixty years to reflect the changing world he exists in, doesn’t show huge amounts of evolution. I’d disagree that Jack Reacher has remained entirely immutable in the twenty-eight years since The Killing Floor, but broadly speaking he is the same person, albeit a bit older.
What triggered this train of thought?
Over the last couple of years, my wife and I have been binge-watching classic comedies that we missed the first time around. The original series of Frasier started when I was at university and I didn’t always have access to a TV, so it passed me by when it first aired. Similarly, Seinfeld, which we have just started watching, was aired when I was a bit too young to appreciate it.
Over the course of Frasier‘s first run it is really interesting to see how the main characters change – the essential character traits change remain fixed, but they are unquestionably different people by the time the series finished.
How I Met Your Mother is another series that showed enormous changes over its lengthy run.
However, I recently read some background on Seinfeld and was intrigued to see that its co-creator, Larry David, was adamant that the characters wouldn’t change appreciably over time. The character traits established in series one would remain largely fixed. They won’t learn from their mistakes and they won’t ‘grow’ as people. We’ve only just started watching, so I will be interested to see if this holds true.
Well, if Seinfeld, one of the most highly respected comedies in recent decades feels it can dispense with evolution, does that mean we as writers of crime fiction can do so? Or is that unchanging scenario a feature unique to comedies, where the initial setup is such that they have plenty of material to explore? Do readers want to see characters change, or remain fixed in time?
What are your thoughts?
As always, feel free to comment here or on social media.
Until next time.
Paul
PS: If you are a writer with a tip to share, or fancy writing a fictional interview between you and one of your characters, please feel free to email me.
