h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You can go too far with nuance, because your story needs drama and drama needs people who disagree with each other - sometimes violently. Imagine a story full of reasonable people having discussions and agreeing with each other. Wouldn't that be boring!

What I think you do need is nuanced characters - the man who seemed to be a bit of a brute is capable of kindness; the shy woman turns out to be a heroine of the resistance.

That's not actually what I meant at all.

You're making the assumption that a nuanced story would lead to reasonable people having reasonable arguments. Why would you assume that? That in itself is an oversimplification of what I said - not nuanced at all. For its time, 'A Tale of Two Cities' represents a quite nuanced discussion of the French Revolution. It's also a pretty violent book.

What I mean by nuanced is that any discussion is not reduced to black-and-white situations and false dichotomies. Of course, that requires that you think beyond the stereotype - which is what a character would be if a writer only have him/her one quality. But could a character with only one quality even be called a character?

Sorry.

No problem. I would agree, though, that you need to do more in a story than argue. Even if arguing is what the characters do best.

Have you ever read Philip K Dick's 'A Maze of Death'? It's a mad sort of story with some very deep meanings, but all the characters in the story are dithery, passive-aggressive, and thoroughly annoying. Add to that the fact that they're on a mission in outer space and have no clue what they're doing...

I think that comes as close to endless argument as any reader could be expected to stand.