Units

Let us imagine a unit of family as our character, Mrs. Unit, Mr. Unit, and their two children, Girl Unit and Boy Unit. They live in the suburbs. Mr. Unit works in the city and commutes. Mrs. Unit is a stay at home wife. They sometimes have barbeque parties with the neighbors. Girl Unit grows up and marries Boy Unit2. Boy Unit goes to college where he meets a girl he marries, and so the whole thing repeats.

But that’s pretty dull, so how about we flesh out the characters somewhat. For instance let’s make Mr. Unit a strange traditionalist who still wears old fashioned hats, and overcoats. He carries a briefcase, and still takes the train into the city even though his office has a car pool.

While we’re out it we should probably make his wife a bit more fleshed out. She works a lot for charities, so even though she doesn’t have any job, she works as much as if she did. She is very involved in the schools her children go to as well. She insists that the family go to church every Sunday, even though she is the only one in the family who is religious. The others go because they want to make her happy and she is content in this.

What about Boy Unit? He likes art, and is alright at it. It’s his best subject in school, though he is pretty good in physical education as well. It’s when he’s asked to study that he has problems, doing things with his hands is something that he has never really had a problem with.

Girl Unit is the exact opposite, she reads everything that is put in front of her. She isn’t overly popular with the other girls her age, but also not totally rejected. The highpoint of her week is when she can stay out late on Saturday and go bowling with her friends.

While all of that is a little more interesting how about we make things even more interesting? After all, that’s just characters sketches and doesn’t really have a plot. Let’s start with Mr. Unit again. He doesn’t like his job much and therefore one day he quits. He starts his own business which unfortunately went bankrupt during a recession. He is now back at a desk under someone else but he has grown too used to being his own boss. There is almost daily conflict between Mr. Unit and his boss.

Mrs. Unit eventually grows tired of doing good; it just doesn’t seem to pay off like she had thought it did when she was younger. She has worn herself out trying to fix everyone’s problems but there just doesn’t seem to be a dent in them. Eventually she grows depressed and gives up. She sits around on the couch and watches soap operas and eating potato chips instead.

Boy Unit went to college for art in the end, rather then business which is what his father had wanted him to do. The girl that he meets is a pot smoking hippy who shocks his parents the first time they meet her. She is never invited over to dinner again, and neither parent goes to the wedding. His art takes off in a small way after a while and he is able to manage to live off of what he makes when combined with his wife’s income.

Girl Unit didn’t marry Boy Unit2 immediately. They lived together for a little while first. Her father doesn’t mind this but Mrs. Unit cares very much and thinks it’s horribly shameful. Several years later Girl Unit and Boy Unit2 get divorced anyway because it turns out that he’s been having an affair.

So in the end it all turns into individuals, because no one really cares about a story with no main characters. One simply can’t write a story about a unit without making the individuals stand out.