If you drove down my street around 8 or 9 this morning, you would have seen our neighbor out front with a heavy duty shop vac, vacuuming the dirt and grass in her front yard.
You probably would have thought, oh, my heavens, some people are totally nuts, and she’s the ripest nut of all.
What you might not know is, she actually had a reason (of course, I hear that shop vac going all the time, and while I don’t peek, so I don’t know what she’s cleaning, I wonder at how obsessive she is). But two nights ago some (crazier) people threw rocks at a car parked in front of her house (it wasn’t hers) and not only dented things up, they shattered a window or two. She was cleaning the glass out of her yard. I remember times when glass got broken when my kids were little, and getting on my knees to dig all those nasty slivers out to protect their tiny, tender feet.
So give your character (or a supporting character, this does work well for the eccentric) some crazy action, and give him or her a reason. Just don’t make it obvious, and don’t let the other characters know—and let him or her try to deal with the hilarious fall out.
