A Little Nudge Out The Door

"If you're referring to the incident with the dragon, I was barely involved. All I did was give your uncle a little nudge out the door." --Gandalf (The Fellowship of the Ring, movie)

I've been needing to write, but have been running into hinderances (in particular, my own avoidance and concerns). So, I decided to try writing about writing to see if I could write anything worthy of being written and if anything out of what I write can be used to help me write what I'm trying to write. Confused yet?

In my WIP (Work In Progress), I'm having difficulties in balancing my MC (Main Character)'s development. For example, she doesn't trust anyone and works entirely alone, and yet, in the first ten pages, she suddenly takes a little girl into her care. How did that happen?!

But, besides that, another problem I've found as I've tried introducing her is keeping consistent with her personality (and letting it gradually grow) and yet, at the same time, gently nudging her "out the door" and making her go where she needs to go. It makes me wonder how God feels sometimes...

As I think of this (and listen to the Hobbit soundtrack that I got for my birthday), I consider how deftly Tolkien introduced Bilbo Baggins and built his "character arch". Here's a hobbit who loves the comfort of his home, but is suddenly shoved out on an adventure far above anything he could have ever imagined. Through most of this adventure, we hear his constant thoughts of home, and yet we also hear another voice, the "Took" in him, yearning to prove himself. By the end, he's still the same Bilbo, and yet entirely different. Any of us who have experienced life changing adventures know how he, and even Frodo later, must have felt upon coming home. That, to me, is the beauty of characters--that we can relate to them in such a way.

I read something recently, though can't even remember where, about the differences between literally shoving the character out the door and letting him decide to go through it on his own. Thinking of this, I thought it fascinating that in the book, The Hobbit, Gandalf appears the morning after the unexpected party to literally drag Bilbo on the adventure, and yet in the movie, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Party, Bilbo wakes up and, upon seeing the unsigned contract lying on his footstool, makes the sudden decision on his own to run after the dwarves. ("Mister Bilbo, where are you off to?" "I'm going on an adventure!") In one, he is shoved out into the world (possibly implying that he may not have gone even if given the choice), and in the other, he is given the choice and, after a few breathtaking moments, decides to leave on his own accord. I don't think one method is better than the other, but I thought it an interesting comparison.

Now for the big question: How can I apply one or the other to my story, and which one would work best for Gwyn (my MC)?

And what about us? We often face both types of "nudges out of the door" moments throughout life. How different would our stories be if we had made different decisions, or if we hadn't been pushed out the door?

"The world is not in your books and maps, it's out there." --Gandalf (The Hobbit, movie)