Organic Means It's Better For You!

Mom threw her back out (by sneezing!) and was in a lot of pain so I suggested she not go to work. Unfortunately she's already used all her sick days this year and if she used another, she'd lose pay.

I remembered something she'd said before, that she still had family sick days left. (Meaning she can take time off to care for my sister and I.) I used logic and since she won't lie (she teaches me good ethics though considering I want to make stories up for a living, which is basically glorified lying, I'm not sure it's working) I explained what I thought she should do: take a family sick day because if you lose pay it'll negatively affect your family, so if you say you need a family sick day your actually being entirely honest.

Mom didn't say anything for a moment and then replied, "You are devious."

She didn't take me up on my logic but she certainly made me think. To me, my statement seemed logical, a way to navigate the situation to keep the words truthful but still get what I want/what's best for my mom. To her, it was devious.

Now I'm not going to claim that I'm completely unaware of my own cunning nature but it really isn't something I think about.

Our characters don't either.

They can be aware of their own personality traits and major flaws but it can still sneak up on them. They can still be surprised when something that makes perfect sense to them seems wrong or strange to others - this makes for some great organic conflict between characters.

Their own flaws and nature can also be used to naturally land them in unsavory situations that they'll have to slog to get out of. For example, my main character can be insatiably curious when she wants answers, she'll do whatever she can do get them, even if she knows it could get her killed. (Yeah, I don't think it's that brilliant either.) But she's not thinking about how curious she is and how badly she wants those answers because of that, to her, it's logic - she wants to understand what's happening and the best way to do that is to press any advantage she can find.

To our characters, all of their actions are logical - even the seemingly illogical ones. They may confound others but to them they are only doing what makes sense. And events that unfold organically because of our characters are so much more fun than blatant, glaring plot devices.

Are you using your characters traits, good and bad, to their full advantage? Any thoughts?

Also, do you love my title or what? Personally, I think it's a stroke of genius.