ANOTHER WRITING TOPIC: CHARACTER ASSUMPTIONS

I have a question, mitsu.

Have you ever assumed something about somebody and been wrong?

Let that sink in a little so that you can realize how inane a question this is.

I blame jRPGs where everything has a 100% concrete reason for happening because it is a world where everything is determined by prophecy.

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I blame jRPGs where everything has a 100% concrete reason for happening because it is a world where everything is determined by prophecy.

I do find myself irritated by this same concept.

What's wrong with chance? What's wrong with randomness? Can't something happen for no reason every once in a while?

That's absurd.

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I blame jRPGs where everything has a 100% concrete reason for happening because it is a world where everything is determined by prophecy.

I do find myself irritated by this same concept.

What's wrong with chance? What's wrong with randomness? Can't something happen for no reason every once in a while?

Here's the thing. When you watch TV shows, or movies, or read books (typically), you're not given every single thought or every single action a character does. Throughout a given day, you think about a lot of things, mostly mundane things like going to the store, homework, work, whatever.

The point is this: if it has no impact on the story or character development, leave it out. If the character is making a false assumption, something better happen. Take sitcoms, for example. A man finds something strange and assumes his wife is cheating on him. What does he do? He starts doing completely crazy and comical things to get her to confess to it, while maintaining a sardonically nice-y demeanor when his wife is around, and contempt when she's not around. Towards the end of the episode, he finds out he's wrong, and everyone laughs when his wife makes a fool of him (See above: Red herring).

If there's no consequence for the assumption, it doesn't belong in the story. Very crafty writers can use a character's thoughts as a means to build character or make the reader draw conclusions about them, but this is really only for strongly character-oriented stories with superb writing. If you're going with a nuts and bolts anime or video game-like story, I'd stick to a simpler formula.

Keep in mind, the consequence doesn't need to be major for making a false assumption, it just has to be there. If the character does things that they would not otherwise do because they made the assumption, that's a consequence (then again it's a boring consequence unless the character's actions or words make bad or important things happen).

EDIT: Also, what uh said is important, too. If readers get the feeling that you start doing things at random without having an effect later in the story (see: chekov's guns), then they will think your story is just that: random and incoherent.