Tag Archive for Bad decisions make good stories

“Bad Decisions Makes Good Stories” — But Not Always!

October 12, 2026 / / 2 comments

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I’ve been watching one of my favorite shows, “Slow Horses,” now in it’s 6th season. I’m waiting for the 5th episode. And, yes, I love the BBC 6-episode approach to a full season. Just the right length; all killer, no filler. 

SPOILER ALERT.

Anyway, I’ve been frustrated with parts of this season (and judging by the reviews I’ve seen, I may be the only person to feel this way).

I keep thinking about the maxim, “Bad decisions make good stories.” Every writer learns this one early on. 

We all understand it. Perfect characters are perfectly dull (and unlikeable). When characters fall short, we identify with them, their foibles make them real. Plus, the bad decisions often lead to conflict, raising the stakes, and open the door to redemption arcs. 

But I have to say that I intensely dislike it when otherwise smart characters make incredibly dumb decisions. That’s not good storytelling, that’s lazy and annoying. And it’s even more annoying when that stupid decision is completely out of character. 

“Slow Horses,” I’m looking at you. 

Part of the appeal of this show, or just about any crime drama, is watching smart characters figure it out. We see that consistently with Jackson Lamb. He’s very, very good at spy craft. His brain is his greatest weapon. We see an old episode of “Columbo” with Peter Falk and it’s a delight to watch this guy, sloppy and easy to underestimate, pick apart an alibi. (Lamb and Columbo have a lot in common, btw, where the outward presentation belies the brilliance below the surface). 

So why am I so annoyed? Because River and Sid are incredibly lame as they try to evade two lethal Russian assassins. Every time they escape, they seem to put down their guard and . . . forget they are being chased by assassins? At one point, after barely surviving, they are walking smack down the middle of a dark street talking about whatever. Bickering, or something. And then headlights crest the hill and — oh, gosh, it’s those pesky Russian assassins again. So they run! Do they run into the woods? No. They run right down the middle of the street. What the holy hell?

Fortunately, they are saved by Coe. Then they go to make a phone call in an arcade. Coe goes off to play video games, River sulks and watches Sid makes a phone call. And lo, here come the Russian assassins again! Why is this a surprise? Wouldn’t they want to be vigilant in some way? Watch the door, maybe? Because there are two heavily-armed assassins trying to kill them!!! Wouldn’t that put you on the alert?

Coe decides to take on one of the assassins by himself, in a bathroom, with only a knife as his weapon. He doesn’t know anything about this assassin, not his skills, not his abilities, not his strength. But he makes this incredibly unnecessary, misguided decision because . . . he’s an idiot? Or because it will (supposedly) make for good television? Again, they’ve opted to serve the gods of Action over the gods of Good Sense. 

Yes, bad decisions. But also, bad spies. Awful at their work. Sure, it all leads to dramatic scenes. Running and jumping, explosions, terrible shooting (insanely bad shooting). The bad decisions serve the “action” gods, but do nothing for the intellect, which is, I would contend, the real appeal of spy craft. 

I get that River is flawed, imperfect. Those traits make him appealing, a guy (like us!) to root for. But please, let’s stop short of making him a blithering idiot.

At least we have Lamb to make things right. 

 

 

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Category: Current Events, the writing process / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Fan Mail #311: A Class in Queens, NY, Reads BYSTANDER

June 8, 2021 / / No comments

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As the school year winds down, I received a bunch of letters from a classroom in Forest Hills, Queens, NY. They all read Bystander. I don’t think it makes sense for me to share them all here, but I did write a group response that you can find below. But to give you a taste — and hopefully a laugh — I’ve included Daniella’s very kind note here. You can tell that she’s a writer, too. It’s pretty terrific . . . 

 

  Dear James Preller,

    Bystander is such an interesting book! Everything leading up to certain points, that was amazing! Some things were expected, and that’s okay because everything else was completely unexpected, and that is one of the amazing things about your book!
Everything happening in the book was completely necessary to the plot, and I just love that. It wasn’t all ‘He ate dinner and then went to his room and studied’. No, there was actual detail. And you only included things like that (of course, filled with detail) when it really mattered!
So if you get letters from people saying that they don’t like your books, just ignore them. They don’t know what they’re saying. Their opinions make as much sense as a thriving Penguin in the desert.
-Daniela B

 

I replied . . . 

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Dear Mr. Lynn, Alex, Cameron, Leanna, Jason W, Abril, Sophia, Daniella, Raiya, and, whew (!), Cassandra:

Well, that was an entertaining bunch of letters, thank you all for sending them. And also for reading my book, Bystander. I appreciate that more than I can express.

I hope you don’t mind that my reply comes in the form of a group letter, rather than individual responses. I’m on a tight deadline right now for my next book —- getting slightly anxious about it, honestly —- so I thought this would be the most efficient approach. 

But first, hey, Forest Hills! My parents grew up in Queens and my favorite baseball team plays in Flushing. Rhymes with pets. 

Fun fact: Out on Hillside Avenue, there’s a number of Little League fields named after my grandfather, Fred Preller, who was a NY State Assemblyman for 22 years. The complex used to be called Preller Fields, but recently another politician glommed onto it, so now it’s called Padavan-Preller Fields in Bellerose (right off the Cross Island Parkway).

Anyway! 

Alex liked the suspense of the scene where Eric sneaks into Griffin’s house. There’s an expression, “Bad decisions make good stories.” I think that’s part of what’s going on in this scene. I’ve heard from some adults who were critical of Eric’s actions. And I’m like, “Hey, don’t blame me, he’s the one who did it!”

That’s too glib, of course. But when you write books, and invent hundreds of characters, you can’t possibly have them all do and say the “right” things all the time. That would be booooring and unrealistic. Also, yes, I sensed that it would be a pleasure to write —- a suspenseful scene that would get the reader leaning in. Nobody wants to read about perfect people who always do the right thing all the time. That’s a pro tip: Invent a character and have them make a poor decision. What happens next?

Sophia, Cassandra, Abril and Daniella all commented on my writing. For sure, that’s an ego thing for me, I confess, but I do love hearing that. I try very hard to write my best, with rich images and vibrant language. For Bystander, I was also intensely focused on delivering a fast-paced plot to keep readers turning the pages.

These days, I think my book Blood Mountain might be the best written one of all. A brother and sister (and their dog!) become lost in a mountain wilderness. It’s creepy in parts, suspenseful and tense —- a survival thriller! You might like it.

Jason dug the book’s “different vibes” —- I like that!

Daniella made my favorite comment of all: “So if you get letters from people saying that they don’t like your books, just ignore them. They don’t know what they’re saying.”

Ha, ha, ha. Love that, Daniella!

Some of you, Raiya, and others, commented about possible sequels. It’s interesting to speculate on what happens to the characters after we close the book. I consider that a compliment, that somehow the character remains alive in (some) readers’ minds. The good news is that we just published Upstander, a prequel/sequel to Bystander that revisits many of that book’s characters in a new story focusing on Mary. It was named a 2021 Junior Library Guild Selection and I’m very excited about it. The book is so new (about 2 weeks) that I haven’t yet heard from one student who has read it. If you do read it, let me hear from you. Just zing me an email!

But please understand that I’ll be following Daniella’s advice. If you don’t like it, I’ll just think, “Well, they don’t know what they’re saying!”

More Preller Trivia: My son, Gavin, 21, just came out with a record. You can listen to it on Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, all those places. He records under his own name, Gavin Preller, and the album is called “There Is Wonder.”

My thanks to your teacher, Mr. Lynn, for sharing my book in his classroom.

Have a great summer. After this year, I think we all deserve it.

My best,

James Preller

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Category: Bystander, Upstander / Tags: , , ,

Bad Decisions Make Good Stories

February 5, 2019 / / One comment

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Detail from self-published book, age 5-6, by yours truly, assisted by my brother Neal.

 

Bad decisions make good stories.

It’s something I know now, as a published author long in the tooth, but I understood it even when I was a kid, drawing my first books, telling the words to any sibling who’d transcribe them for me. I could draw, just didn’t yet have the ability to write the words.

The art is taken from a book I made as a young boy, miraculously stored safely away in the attic by my mother. You see, long before I got my current gig, I used to make books and sell them to my friends and neighbors.

Anyway, here’s another detail to that same page. We’ll call it, “Tarzan’s Bad Idea.”

If you can’t read my brother Neal’s handwriting: “I had better go down and fight the lion.”

When I show this story to kindergartners, I’ll sometimes mention that if I were Tarzan, I’d be like, “Okay, gee. I’m going to stay up in this tree until that lion goes away.”

We all agree that would make a crummy book!

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Category: School Visits, the writing process / Tags: ,

“Bad Decisions Make Good Stories.”

December 5, 2011 / / No comments

I came across this wall photo on the web. I wasn’t too crazy about it, frankly, didn’t strike me as hysterical, but number 10 got my attention:

Bad decisions make good stories.

(Click on the image if you wish to make it larger. You know that, right?)

I think that five-word sentence serves as an excellent piece of advice to writers. Just as we don’t want to read about perfect people who always do the right thing, and think the correct thoughts, there is nothing duller than a character who never makes a mistake.

It’s the imperfections that make us human. The wrong turns that take us to unexpected places.

I recently received an email from a middle school teacher who complimented me on Bystander. However, she wondered about the scene late in the book when Eric snuck into Griffin’s house. She wasn’t comfortable with it, didn’t feel that Eric was modeling the appropriate behavior, sending the right message. My answer was simple. First, I reminded her, respectfully, that I wrote a story, not a thesis, and that I never intended for Eric to portray “all the correct responses” to bullying. And secondly, that I had no desire to write about a character who never experienced a lapse of judgment. More importantly, as a writer I understood and recognized Eric’s motivation — that part made sense to me, the urge for revenge, why he wanted to take back what was stolen from him — even if it wasn’t the “right” thing to do.

The lapse made him more human.

Again:

Bad decisions make good stories.

Just to be clear: I also dislike it when character do incredibly stupid things for seemingly no reason, or when they act in ways that are inconsistent with their character. The “bad decision” should (or must) fit in with the logic of the character as written.

Or so I tell myself.

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Category: Bullying, Bystander, the writing process / Tags: , , ,
 
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