Why Did Your Character Do That?

Here is one more of those errors that I see far too often. The story is booking along at a pleasant pace. And then, all of a sudden, one of the characters does something out of the blue. I am not talking about something necessarily out of character. I am literally talking about the character making a decision to do something without any motivation. We're talking a real "Squirrel Moment."

These out of the blue moments are amazingly distracting to a reader. I get that the author is trying to get the characters from one point to the next. I get that there is a pretty good chance the author is trying to move the character to different emotional state. BUT... there has to be a reason for this to happen. 

I was once told by a director when I was doing theater that he didn't care if all we did was to stand on the stage and not move. He was tired of characters just moving around the stage for no reason. If you were Stage Left and needed to go to Stage Right, there better be a reason. If not, DON'T MOVE.

When you get ready to have a character do something, take the time to ask yourself why. Is there anything that is motivating that character to do what you want them to do? If not, then do not add it to the story.