Verismellitude

Can a character come alive on the page whilst the writer ignores significant but, uh, delicate aspects of the character's character?

Take, for instance, my friend Kevin. He's a meat and potatoes kind of guy, never eats green vegetables and rarely eats fruit. His idea of whole grains is a bowl of Sugar Frosted Flakes.

You cannot understand what it's like to share a car with Kevin on a road trip to Las Vegas if you don't understand the immense volume of gas he expels from his overstuffed colon each hour. And you cannot understand why none of us will ever share a hotel room with him again unless you understand what happens when that overstuffed colon finally frees its contents in a hotel bathroom that doesn't have an exhaust fan or an outside window. Wallpaper peels, strong men wilt, guys in hazmat suits appear, doctors run tests.

But I'd bet 99 out of 100 novelists would ignore this delicate detail of my friend Kevin's character. And that, I submit, would remove about 99% of what's interesting about Kevin, leaving an empty, but deceptively sweet-smelling, shell on the page.