How to handle things that are normal to a character that really shouldn't be?

Normalcy and strangeness are all relative and as such, I firmly believe the best way to show how normal a character's actions are for them/weird in the greater whole is by providing contrasts in another character's actions and view point.

I'd point to the movie The Unforgiven for a masterclass on how that's done. There's no shortage of characters in it who are talking the talk when it comes to violence but when it comes to walking the walk, the list of those genuinely willing to hurt another person in cold blood grows smaller and smaller until there's just Will Munny and Little Bill. And we can see how what normal looks for them by contrasting it to watching them try to catch pigs or build a house.

So that would be my advice. Include characters (and preferably PoVs) who do not find it normal, so the reader can contrast and compare (and preferably see through the eyes of the others). Show the way they struggle at other things and the way they do the abnormal like breathing and let the reader draw their own conclusions.
 
Read American Psycho. A lot of the violence is written bluntly and very matter of fact. Emotion is described, but mainly just a sense of panic or frustration that it isn't turning out as planned rather than any sort of self doubt.
 
I played a game called Persona 3 that handled this really well. The MC steps off a train into a station that's glowing supernaturally green, random puddles of blood cover everything and all the people have been transmogrified into coffins. He just shrugs and carries on.
 
I think it's all about the character's reaction.

You can describe a huge dragon tearing open the roof of a cafe and raining glass and debris on the panicking people, then after the description, if your character just groans and thinks, Bah! Twice in one week? It will make the point clearly to the reader as the reaction contrasts with their own.

Here is a less dramatic example from the first draft of one of my WIPs... I was trying to establish just how run down the slums of this town were even though my character is perfectly used to it.

[She] knocked on the pockmarked door sending a flurry of ants to the cobwebbed landing. A desperate baby's wail drifted from somewhere to her right, interrupted by the snarling of an angry dog and a man's shouts somewhere to her left. The dim hallway had all the welcome and vibrance of an overgrown graveyard.

She had to admit, it was quite a bit nicer than her part of town.
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I think that in reality everyone is capable of reaching this point; it's just a matter of what has to happen to or around them to push them to that point. And if you are cynical you could sum it up like the judge did during the trial of my best friend; no one knows what a person might me capable of doing and anyone who who says that this man could never do something like this, is deluding themselves

However for those that reach this point and seem to stay there; well that would be insane.

This is why it works better if there are circumstances that lead up to the whole event, though that seems to fall in line with a familiar trope.

I've recently read a number of books whose main characters do this a lot and directly from the start. Which is also becoming a trope.

I think if you have a character like this then you need to craft a very plausible reason for them to be the way they are. I also think that the average reader will see easily that they do not seem to act normally; at least until they see that plausible reason. And if they are like me they will be put off if there doesn't seem to be any underlying reason for their abnormal behavior.

On the other hand if you chose to show that they are clearly insane then you don't really need to show much other than to make them a consistent nut case. And in that instance you would never see them as trying to examine their behavior at all since it seems perfectly acceptable and normal behavior.

I know this isn't as extreme as your supposition::

He raged, his face grew flush and in dim lighting Dan's shadow displayed clenched fists, he silently cursed everyone from his father, to teachers, to bosses who all felt so liberal about pointing out accountability; though each being reluctant to allow him the authority necessary to mitigate responsibility. Almost of their own volition his arm scooped down, and his hand grasped the empty six-pack of bottles. Without much thought he hurled it the full twenty feet past the desk and into the far wall. Bricks shattered glass and the shards sprinkled outward. An animal like growl squeezed out his gut. He stood motionless.

Grasping the broom from the near corner with his throwing hand, he whisked up the dustpan with his other and stomped methodically across the cement floor, each step delivering frustration into the unmovable surface, until he'd scuffed through glass, with a gritty grinding sound. At the far wall he commenced sweeping up against the wall, collecting all of the pieces from the open floor to the areas under the chair, scraping glass interrupted by sounds like chimes; until he'd reached the outer limit of the event. His shoulders relaxed in slow progression throughout, until he bent slightly to use the dustpan to collect all the bits. He glanced around momentarily. Then with exacting swift movements he dropped the debris into the trashcan.

Quietly he turned and calmly walked back to return the tools to their proper place.

Only then did he notice the young clerk, Clarisa, and he pondered the puzzle of how long she'd been standing there. Her expression his only tell. She seemed to watch his every move with an appearance less of fear and more of bewilderment. As though she couldn't imagine someone going from red hot to mellow in such a short span. It was always like this for him. And he wondered if he could just sustain anger long enough, perhaps he could stand up for himself. For once.

::But could be considered unusual behavior.
 
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R.T James said:
I'm trying to figure out the best way to convey what is going on through his eyes, so the audience has an idea of just how crazy this is.
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Make the POV of the event as seen through his perspective. How does he view this altercation? What are his internal emotions before, during and after?
 
Tim Murray said:
Make the POV of the event as seen through his perspective. How does he view this altercation? What are his internal emotions before, during and after?
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apprehension, disappointment, and annoyance.

That's usually the list of how it runs down. He knows it's going to happen. gods damnit it is happening, Look at what you made me do. STOP SCREAMING YOU ATTACKED ME.:mad:
 
R.T James said:
This is a question I've always pondered: how do you convey to the audience that something insane is happening when the POV person is so used to it. They're so numb to it all, they expect it to happen, and they're bored with it all.
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Turn to the PI novels--Dashiell Hammett, certainly. Raymond Chandler. Walter Moseley. But plenty of others. In all these, the MC lives in or enters into a violent world, but he moves through it with a kind of resigned persistence. He (it's usually a he, until the last couple of decades) is phlegmatic, a reporter of the violence. First person POV is common but not required.

It's a tone not often found in the gee-whiz world of fantasy, but it definitely can be done.
 
sknox said:
Turn to the PI novels--Dashiell Hammett, certainly. Raymond Chandler. Walter Moseley. But plenty of others. In all these, the MC lives in or enters into a violent world, but he moves through it with a kind of resigned persistence. He (it's usually a he, until the last couple of decades) is phlegmatic, a reporter of the violence. First person POV is common but not required.

It's a tone not often found in the gee-whiz world of fantasy, but it definitely can be done.
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Funny this comes up, the Beta for my revisionary draft said she instantly got the narrative as Film Noir style. I write in First person POV, so that's one of the main things. I feel like the odd man out since there in many places there's a witch hunt against first person. I have no idea why..... there just is.:confused:
 
R.T James said:
Funny this comes up, the Beta for my revisionary draft said she instantly got the narrative as Film Noir style. I write in First person POV, so that's one of the main things. I feel like the odd man out since there in many places there's a witch hunt against first person. I have no idea why..... there just is.:confused:
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I don't mind first person. It's present tense that drives me batty. Has driven me batty. :)
 
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