On writing about clumsiness

I am very clumsy. I drop everything. If it's on the ground, I trip. I am perpetually covered in bruises I have no memory of acquiring. My mother eventually gave up on telling me to look up when I walk because I stumbled too often with my eyes off the ground.

I hate it when clumsy is done to be cute. I hated it in Twilight, and I still do. That being said, my characters have clumsy moments. I find myself raising an eyebrow when no one in a book ever stumbles over something as they creep through a dark house, fall as they take the stairs two at a time, or bounces in their saddle like a sack of potatoes.

kuwisdelu said:

If I trip, I make sure to trip dramatically.

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You say this as if there's another way to do it.

Little Anonymous Me said:

That being said, my characters have clumsy moments. I find myself raising an eyebrow when no one in a book ever stumbles over something as they creep through a dark house, fall as they take the stairs two at a time, or bounces in their saddle like a sack of potatoes.

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Oh yeah. I have a historical novella where the heroine, fleeing from an intruder, bolts into a dark bedroom and runs into one of the posts of a four-poster bed, which hits her between the eyes. But it's not played for laughs, and it's not a cute flaw of hers.

And I came back to this topic because I just read this review:

It wasn't just the showering that bothered me, though. It was how Claire's "endearing" clumsiness actually just made her look stupid and helpless.

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Little Anonymous Me said:

That being said, my characters have clumsy moments.

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Mine, too. My MC isn't clumsy per se, but she does trip over a turtle while out running... It isn't cute, either. She skins up her hands and knees. LOL

Marian Perera said:

Oh yeah. I have a historical novella where the heroine, fleeing from an intruder, bolts into a dark bedroom and runs into one of the posts of a four-poster bed, which hits her between the eyes. But it's not played for laughs, and it's not a cute flaw of hers.

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It may not have been for laughs, but it made me laugh. I've done something similar, though I couldn't blame an intruder.

Getting smacked between the eyes while afraid and running can really add to the scene, and that's the sort of stuff I actually like seeing. Most people are uncoordinated when they panic. Perfect balance at all times is just as unbelievable as people literally tripping over physical attractiveness.

And I came back to this topic because I just read this review:

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Ugh. Yes. THIS. That is my beef with "clumsy" characters. A.) They're nearly always women (How often do you see clumsy dudes?), and B.) It makes them look like morons who need someone strong to literally lean on. Never in my life has someone found my propensity to knock things over and trip over flat surfaces endearing. It's usually more along the lines of, "Don't hand LAM the actual glass, and let's move the vase a few inches further back."

Carrie in PA said:

Mine, too. My MC isn't clumsy per se, but she does trip over a turtle while out running... It isn't cute, either. She skins up her hands and knees. LOL

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I've tripped over a lot of things in life, but I can't say a turtle was ever one of them.