Collateral Damage

I’m a big fan of showing collateral damage in fiction plots.

I’m not talking about the military summations of who died on either side.

I’m talking about showing what happens when your protagonist does something that profoundly affects someone else. When you come across someone in your plot that has been harmed by the poor choices your characters make.

It’s one of the reasons I don’t often like or enjoy superhero or action movies. Too many of the Non-Player Characters are just used as body count or a means to an end. A great deal of the Named Secondary Characters are merely props to further the emotional instability of the Main Character protagonists and antagonists.

It’s also one of the many reasons I’m enjoying the Jessica Jones series. Now there’s a character that’s dealing with Collateral Damage. Victims become heroes, heroes fight the bad guys, but no one is the same when it’s over. There’s no reset button.

I’m on the fifth episode, and I really hope I still like it by the end.

Since becoming an editor, my ability to enjoy fiction has been seriously dampened. I could even say the more I learn about plot building, the more collateral damage there is to my ability to sit back and enjoy a movie. I can’t help but do a body count of NPCs and times that the writer ignores their own worldbuilding rules.

Speaking of movies, I really liked Deadpool, even though the unaddressed collateral damage was pretty high. I think it’s because we saw that the protag was an antihero. It’s also because some of the NSCs discussed the potential CD with the MCs, and our Protag Anti-hero acknowledged the CD without making validation excuses. He knew what he was doing was terrible. I’m trying not to look further so I can still enjoy the movie.

Which brings me back to writing about collateral damage.

What is too much? When should you do it? How do you do it? What if my belief system about culpability isn’t the same as my main character? What if someone who reads my book doesn’t like how I’ve addressed the collateral damage? What if what I’m doing is just another trope?

Don’t worry too much about that.

Just look at your plot and ask yourself, is there some collateral damage here that might help move along the development of my character, the world I’ve built, or the storyline? Yes? Go for it. No? I doubt that. Every story has an element of CD. Even if it’s only in how much your MC doesn’t care about the NPCs.

Remember this:

There is nothing new to write about and no new way to do it. There is no right way or wrong way. There are only stories you like and stories you don’t like, ones you can sell and ones you can’t, audiences who hate you and audiences who love you. If you have the mechanics down on writing, you can tell a story. If you understand collateral damage, you can tell a great one.

And by the way:

I like seeing collateral damage in fiction. I don’t like it when writers do collateral damage to one another. You know what I mean. Stepping on each other’s money. In-fighting amongst groups and organizations. Accusing one another of being hacks, posers, snobs and artistes. My genre is better than your genre. I’m not even sure that stuff would work in a fiction novel. Boring.

Now excuse me… I’m going to go watch the sixth episode of Jessica Jones before getting back to my own novel.