Everyday Canvas

Mistaken Judgments in Fiction and Life

Inspired by the ongoing political debates, in which the factfinders find the holes in facts and errors made on purpose, this Sunday, I wanted to write about mistaken judgments, not involving our circus-like political scene, but the writing of fiction. Funny, from where we all find inspiration!

As a principle, I respect everyone’s judgment whether it agrees with mine or not, but if a judgment ends with disaster, shouldn’t we call it mistaken? A mistaken-judgment situation in a piece of fiction needs a character who is mistaken, the victim of his acts or thinking, and the catalyst as a possible instigator or an incident.

The mistaken character can be one who is gullible as he believes in and trusts others or an intelligent one who is cold and calculating. He or she can be impulsively rushing to judgment and is not hesitant to stab another character in the back. This character can be the protagonist or the antagonist.

His victim or victims can be the protagonist and/or any other secondary character. He or she can be just a bystander or somehow-involved-in-the-mistake person or persons.


Some of the leading passions and emotions involved in the story can be:

jealousy

false suspicions or rumors

taking some event or some idea out of context

knowingly allowing false suspicions to support friends or allies

subconsciously trying to cause an event repeat itself, an event that hurt or helped him in the past

the general belief that someone or some notion is an enemy

errors purposely provoked by an outsider or an enemy

the indifference of the secondary or third-place characters or to what really matters


The catalyst, on the other hand, can be an event or a person. If a person, he or she may have some self-interest, may dislike or hate the mistaken character or his victim, may feel jealousy toward either one or both.

Now that I’ve listed all I could think of, isn’t it a coincidence that so much of the political scene fits so easily into here?