communication issues

                There is another story element that goes hand in hand with noble idiocy. Sadly I do not have a name for this it, but it occurs when the protagonist comes into some information that could damage their relationship with another, or cause harm or do damage to the people around them. Instead of sharing this information with those people they love and making sure everything is done to keep them safe they keep it to themselves and end up doing causing more damage in the end.

                I as a reader can understand why a character would not divulge information that could be harmful without gathering all of the facts, but whey, if you know everything and can actually help those around you by sharing the information whey not say anything. For example if a main character finds that his entire island is going to sink and everybody living on it will die if nothing is done. Why would he not tell anybody? If he decides that it would be better for the well fair of his people to keep this information to himself in the end it does much more harm than good. When the island starts to sink the people living will have no time to escape and drown. However if the protagonist tells his people about the danger as soon as he learns it then even if nothing can be done there is at least a chance that the people will have time to escape before the danger arrives.

Noble Idiocy

                There is a story element that is used rather frequently in retail fiction that is used for nothing more than creating romantic tension between the male and female protagonist. This element does not have an official name, but I like to call it noble idiocy.

                Noble idiocy occurs when either the male or female protagonist in a relationship find a reason the relationship cannot continue. Sometimes these reason sometimes make half sense, but most of the time these reasons are irrational and dumb. A good example of a reason that only makes half sense would be if the male protagonist no longer wanted to be in a relationship because he thought that the female protag deserved better. This reason is not completely rational. I mean if she did not want to marry the guy then why enter into the relationship in the first place. This reason is usually passed off by the author as the male’s misgivings. The completely irrational reasons are usually much more dramatic and have no base in reality. They sometimes play out like this.

“Sally I love you.”

“I love you too Fred”

“We should get married”

“Oh Fred I would love too but I can’t”

“Why not?”

“I killed my parents.”

“You did what.”

“Yeah, when I was thirteen, my parents went on vacation and they never came back.”

“Sally, how is that you fault?”

“I could have kept them from leaving and then they would not have died.”

It would be at this point when Fred would tell Sally that she is acting just a little bit stupid and there was no way that that was her fault. Sally would have agreed and they would have gotten married, then end.

Something that would make more sense and would be way more believable would be if one of the people in a relationship were having misgivings to explain them and then ask for help in getting rid of them. It is not likely that this method will become popular any time soon because romantic tension seems to sell a lot of books