Believable Skill development

[Deleted member 4265]

In my story I have a character, who transitions very quickly from being a somewhat disturbed (he suffers from a form of PTSD as well as suicidal tendencies) but very passive individual to an efficient and coldblooded killer.

Now even though he personally doesn't believe in using violence at the beginning of the story, he's been trained in both armed and unarmed martial arts since he was nine and he has the technique down, but he's never actually won a fight because he lacks the conviction to really want to harm anyone (even in a training setting where no one's in any real danger), he always backs down or hesitates when he has the upper hand.

So when something does eventually snap inside of him and he wants to go on a murderous rampage, he has the skills to do it. Of course, when he actually does start killing the first few times, he panics and things get messy.

That beings said, he does go from being a nonviolent individual to a hardened and horribly efficient killer in a very short period of time. I'm wondering if you would buy this explanation, because he has to fight several experienced warriors during the course of the story. I really don't want to add any sort of training/mentoring arc and I doubt there would be enough in-story time to train him to the skill level he needs without messing with the pacing.

This got be thinking about how to make skill development believable in general. I've read plenty of books where characters learned things they didn't know anything about (sword fighting, reading and writing, magic, ect.) far too quickly, and it didn't feel real. The stories that usually do skill development really well, tend to be the ones that have it as a major tenant, such as apprenticeship and school stories where the development of a skill is tied to a coming age/internal growth very strongly.

But I'm more curious about how to handle it in a story where that isn't one of the major focuses, and a character just needs to learn a skill because it will come in handy at a crucial moment. How do you do that without slowing down the story too much, while still making it feel organic? Or how do you make a character already good at something without them coming off as a prodigy and make it clear to the reader that they did and do work hard to be as good as they are?

 

[glutton]

This got be thinking about how to make skill development believable in general. I've read plenty of books where characters learned things they didn't know anything about (sword fighting, reading and writing, magic, ect.) far too quickly, and it didn't feel real. The stories that usually do skill development really well, tend to be the ones that have it as a major tenant, such as apprenticeship and school stories where the development of a skill is tied to a coming age/internal growth very strongly.

But I'm more curious about how to handle it in a story where that isn't one of the major focuses, and a character just needs to learn a skill because it will come in handy at a crucial moment. How do you do that without slowing down the story too much, while still making it feel organic? Or how do you make a character already good at something without them coming off as a prodigy and make it clear to the reader that they did and do work hard to be as good as they are?

For most of my stories I get around it because the MC already has several years of training and experience when the story starts, but they also come off as prodigies since they are usually really good and not 'just' competent lol. For a less experienced MC they might have training but no or little experience, but I rarely go with an MC who has no training at all since they have to be a well above average badass by the end for most things I write and that's tough if the story covers a year or less and they start out completely clueless.

 

[FifthView]

You can always use something like a training montage. It doesn't have to be official training, although it can be. And it doesn't have to dwell on the training, but can instead mention it as a part of the exposition. Something like,

"Every morning he woke before dawn, but Jord was always waiting for him, practice swords in hand. By noon, he had a fresh batch of scrapes and bruises and, at first, the occasional blister. Afternoons and evenings, he repaired equipment for the entire regiment or did whatever other odd jobs could be found for him. Jord insisted that he pray nightly to Demitrey, asking for strength and guidance, until the moon had reached its zenith; then, a few hours of sleep before starting the next day."*

If it isn't official training, the same sort of thing can still be utilized. For example, the young magic user working on his own, attempting to light a candle across the room day after day until he gets a spark and a little smoke. Then, eventually, a lasting flame.

I do believe that some sort of signal to the reader is necessary, a reference to training or exercises, to justify an improvement in skill levels.

You can, however, spread that training over a significant portion of the book if proficiency isn't absolutely necessary early in the story, and instead of using montage you can have scenes in which the character uses his skills, fails, is lucky enough to not die, and rinse/repeat until he naturally improves. I think that if you have enough try/fail cycles, with the occasional success (however lucky), you can get away with leaping forward in skill level a bit, bit by bit, until he's eventually much better than when he started. The point with this method is this: you give the reader a sense that he's earned it.

Your current scenario is somewhat different, because your character already has the training and just needs a psychological break, or the right impetus, to become that killer. Even so, it might be good to have a few try/fail cycles until he works through that shift, because hesitations and not having applied his training mean he's got a little rust to work out.

*Edit: Forgot to mention that a passage of time should be included for montage. Say, this goes on for a month or two or three. Plus, the montage could include references to specific and varied training exercises, accidents, and so forth.

 

[Velka]

I think that as long as you establish from the beginning that he's had lots of training before the story began the reader won't have a problem believing he has the skills to pop someone's head off when the time comes. Working it into his backstory should be sufficient enough. Your challenge will be making the psychological break believable to turn him from subdued pacifist to sociopathic killer.

As for your general question of writing skills progression/acquisition without making it take up too much of the story, it's a tricky one. As FifthView said, a training montage that gives an overview of the work they put in and marks a believable passage of time can work, but it can also feel rushed in some ways. The progression from clueless to skilled is a long, hard road, and it's bursting with potential for character development, (and I'm all about character development) so when it's glossed over I can't help but feel a bit cheated.

 

[Ben]

So he's always had he skills but just needed to develop a killer instinct?
Sure I can buy that.

 

[skip.knox]

Specifics, Devouring Wolf? I can never answer questions that are asked in such general terms because the answer will always be "it depends".

 

[Jerseydevil]

It seems that he does not need to develop skill, but a killer instinct, as Ben pointed out. This can be done a few ways. First off, people do change. He may see the futility of a pacifistic approach after carefully reconsidering his life's path, maybe with an internal monologue scene. There could be a moment when another character convinces him of the necessity to kill. This is exactly what happened to Sgt. Alvin York in WWI. It really depends on why,exactly he doesn't want to kill and other circumstances. For a more clumsy, but still plausible approach, head trauma can alter a person's personality. You mentioned that he has PTSD. New research is showing that brain trauma is a major contributing factor in the disorder. Maybe he got hit on the head and that changed him.

There is also the simple reason: He got fed up with the bad guy's BS, grabbed and ax and started hacking people.

 

[JP Harker]

For what it's worth I'd both agree and disagree. I've been a martial arts fanatic for the last twelve years and I'm an instructor in Traditional Jujutsu. In my experience, people who trained as kids but have only lately began to take it seriously often have to 're-learn' their techniques. It's not so much a case of 'knowing the moves' but being able to apply your technique with the right attitude and under real pressure that leads to martial proficiency. If your guy was unable to commit like that earlier due to his pacifist nature, it means even if his technical proficiency was good, he would need to re-train himself to perform his techniques with proper spirit.
Given that he's already trained it would obviously take less time than if he were a complete beginner since he's got a good base to work from, but I'd say you do need to show some sort of re-learning/new understanding in him.

 

[AndrewLowe]

It reminds me of Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishments.

 

[Deleted member 4265]

For what it's worth I'd both agree and disagree. I've been a martial arts fanatic for the last twelve years and I'm an instructor in Traditional Jujutsu. In my experience, people who trained as kids but have only lately began to take it seriously often have to 're-learn' their techniques. It's not so much a case of 'knowing the moves' but being able to apply your technique with the right attitude and under real pressure that leads to martial proficiency. If your guy was unable to commit like that earlier due to his pacifist nature, it means even if his technical proficiency was good, he would need to re-train himself to perform his techniques with proper spirit.
Given that he's already trained it would obviously take less time than if he were a complete beginner since he's got a good base to work from, but I'd say you do need to show some sort of re-learning/new understanding in him.

Thank you, this is really what I was getting at with my question. My worry is that what he learned is how to duel, which is a very different thing than how to fight. His training was more for ritualistic/religious practice than it was ever intended for legitimate combat. He did learn a lot of useful stuff, but there was a also a lot of dueling 'fanciness' and he's been used to fighting people who play by the rules, which again is different from a real life situation where someone is trying to kill you.

 

[JP Harker]

Duelling is very different from fighting (just ask Richard Sharpe!), as is ritualised combat, but if he's got at least some good muscle memory for technique and a good understanding of things like balance, distance, accuracy and timing, it will at least take him less time to learn to apply it than your average bloke off the street. So long as the difference between training and reality was made clear in the book and that there was a definite transitionary phase, I would't struggle at all to believe that he gained a degree of practical proficiency in a fairly short period of time.
Hope that helps and if so, glad I could!