The Character Development Hoopla

A lot of books get panned by critics for lack of “character development”. Even How I Met Your Mother got panned for similar reasons relating to the all-awesome Barney Stinson’s “character development that got assassinated in 5 seconds flat”.
It’s all a hue and cry created by these drama queen critics.
Think about it. Little folk tales taught us about the evil arrogant prince, who by the end of four pages gets cursed by a witch, and to get rid of the curse, becomes this really sweet puppy dog kinda guy. That’s character development in a folk/fairy tale force-fed to us since childhood. Now if we were to apply all fairy tale wisdom to full length works of fiction, you get a dead woman waking up due to a necrophiliac’s uncontrolled urges!
Think of your own lives. Yes, you grow. Yes, you change every day. But how many times have you met an old friend who said “You haven’t changed one bit.”
In little ways you change, you grow, but intrinsically you remain the same. Dramatic changes for a woman include a haircut and for a man include getting up from the couch and turning off the TV.
Yes, you are a better person today than you were yesterday, in the last hour, in the last minute. Your thought processes keep changing. But if I meet you, after a long conversation, I am still gonna say “You haven’t changed a bit!”And you know what? I like it that way.Copyright Petrichor and Clouds 2013 at petrichorandclouds.blogspot.com Please do not reproduce the material published here.