Stories are full of surprises that disrupt protagonists’ expectations.
Aubrey is working at the call center. She’s prepared for some of the people she calls to be rude and others to be interested. What she’s not expecting is Carl, an elderly gentleman who is so lonely that he’ll talk with Aubrey for as long as she stays on the line.
A gap breaks the routine of whatever is going on. Characters can no longer operate on auto-pilot. When a gap occurs, they must figure out how to deal with the unexpected turn of events. Here are a variety of types of gaps.
Gap responses
Consider how the spect anticipates your character will react, then respond differently. If you’re playing the spect’s stern father who catches her sneaking home after curfew, she probably expects to be reprimanded. Instead, tell her how pleased you are that she’s living her life to the fullest. Because a gap response is out of character, you’ll need to justify why you have the unexpected response. This can be a great opportunity to reveal a hidden layer of your character.
You can make a gap response carry extra punch through your delivery. One way is to let your unexpected emotional response gradually bloom across your face while they are speaking. Another is to hold the unexpected perspective without explaining why. Both these techniques create suspense in the spect’s mind before the justification is revealed. They also invite spects to dig the justification out of you.
Gap stakes
Another way to create a gap is by revealing that the stakes in a situation are higher or lower than expected. If the spect is having dinner with friends and arrives in jeans and t-shirt, the discovery that everyone else is wearing gowns and tuxedos becomes a gap of stakes.
Gap outcomes
The outcome of a scene can also become a gap. The spect is trying to accomplish a goal. An outcome of “Yes, but…” sees the goal accomplished, but comes with unexpected strings attached. An outcome of “No, and furthermore…” results in defeat, and unexpectedly makes things even worse than they were before.
Unreal gaps
Some gaps define the genre of a story. If the gap is something that could only happen outside the realm of “real life,” it’s a unreal gap. This type of gap appears in fantasies, science fiction, supernatural, magic realism, or any other genre in which the rules of “real life” don’t fully apply. If a tree begins to talk to the spect, the story may have become a fantasy. If a character passes through walls without the aid of a doorway, the story might be supernatural, science fiction, or fantasy. The thing to remember is this: When an unreal gap occurs, the genre implicitly becomes unreal as well.
Gaps spice up a story with surprises that keep things interesting. They happen to the spect, not because of the spect. If you introduce too many gaps, spects start to feel disempowered. Use gaps as you would use a spice—enough to keep things tasty, but not so much that it becomes overwhelming.
Updated: August 22, 2024
