Sure, I want my characters to make decisions that might seem good initially. And, of course, my favorite kinds of bad decisions tend to fall into any of these categories:

– Info they had no access to
– Luck factors
– Lots of moving parts in implementation (which usually makes characters feel like there is no optimal outcome)
– High-pressure situations (if a character gets into lots of these, though, you have a different flaw)

In short, bounded rationality.

Yes, this! Miles Vorkosigan knew that he was a highly responsible person and it was honestly not his fault he’d been lying about his seizures, and besides, the guy who lost his leg because of them would get it replaced thanks for SF modern medicine. So of *course* he only slightly edited his report to Simon….(Bujold universe again).

Well, he *thought* it was a smart decision…oops.

But speaking in passive voice can be a quirk of your character. Like you said, a lot of people DO speak in passive voice to avoid confrontation. Additionally, I read A LOT. Active voice is very American. European writers use a lot of passive voice and LOVE compound sentences. I would simply say that so long as your beta readers are following and enjoying then leave it. It is just your voice.

But thanks, the phone cable disturbed me and will be stuck in my head all day because… its a jpg…I’ll never be able to untangle it!

You did ask for comments, so:

I notice in my first draft I write ‘creepy’ enough and leave out enough that the characters have a mystery about them. It generates (some) excitement in my beta’s. In a way, my MC is not overtly a Mary Sue but is indeed read as one (I don’t do this on purpose). But the grammar is terrible, passives everywhere, etc. In my defense, a Mary Sue is polite and would not be so direct. As such they would even talk in passives to reduce confrontation and not be so presumptuous, so I think my character infects my narration. However when I go back to edit and clean it up and make it more understandable, I then ruin it. Even my wife who usually is supportive says my second drafts “suck” and she says, “I don’t even want to finish it, why don’t you just keep the first draft of that chapter?”

I’ve stopped editing and not seen any blogs out there about my type of “outlier” problem…thus feeling alone and wanting to retreat back into a vault?

Tonio Vitor came home and was going to confess that he had to leave again because he’d gone to bed with his sister-in-law. The house was on fire. So of course he ran in to rescue people. Did not turn out the way he thought it would. (one of my books).

I agree that there has to be a legitimate or understandable reason for the characters to make bad decisions. I’ve put down countless books (even award-winning books) after only getting partway through because I can’t buy the characters’ choices or reasoning. My writing is far from perfect, but I’m still working on it. It’s eye-opening how things that seem perfectly clear to me can be so easily misunderstood by others! I guess that also goes for real life …

Thank you for another wonderful, relatable post!