When the audience heard a toilet flush on All in the Family, it was a seminal moment for television. In the before days, producers were loathe to acknowledge normal body functions and needs. Children were sent to take baths, but we rarely saw adults in the shower. Married couples slept in separate single beds. Toilets were not seen nor heard.
In a post on Jane Friedman’s blog, Kayla Kauffman says there’s a reason we don’t see characters making breakfast, using the bathroom, or getting dressed in fiction. The simple answer is we don’t need to see it.
“When writers seek to humanize and bring their characters to life, they can be tempted to fall into what I call the ‘daily routine trap.'” Kauffman writes. “Writers who fall prey to this trap typically over-explain the daily or mundane actions of their characters, usually in an attempt to move them from point A to point B in the narrative.” However, while this action feels essential to the writer, most readers couldn’t care less.
Unless told otherwise, readers assume that your characters sleep at night, eat at appropriate intervals, use the bathroom, bathe, and carry their wallets. Kauffman advises you skip the mundane and use other means to get your characters moving. Unless there’s something notable about your character’s habits, we don’t need to know them.
