{"id":7945,"date":"2019-05-14T09:07:15","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T13:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7945"},"modified":"2019-05-14T09:07:23","modified_gmt":"2019-05-14T13:07:23","slug":"is-somebody-following-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7945","title":{"rendered":"Is Somebody Following Me?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Crime-writers (and moviegoers) are attuned to that staple of\nadrenalin-pumping action, the car chase. It doesn\u2019t matter whether the pursuit\nis from the perspective of the follower or the followee\u2014\u201cThat red car\u2019s been\nbehind me since Cleveland!\u201d\u2014they can be fun to write and nerve-wracking to read\nor watch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alas, chases that are little more than special effects demo\nreels (thanks,\nHollywood<\/a>), bear little relationship to how actual people would behave and\nstrain readers\u2019 credulity. If your characters are ordinary citizens, they\u2019re unlikely\nto notice they\u2019re being followed in the first place. If they do notice, they\nwon\u2019t know what to do about it. You have to find the sweet spot between over-the-top\ndemolition-derby mayhem and dull cluelessness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This renodadsblog<\/a>\npost, written by two former CIA operatives, gives some tips on how\nnon-professionals can detect surveillance. It\u2019s basic stuff, but if you\u2019ve been\non a steady diet of The Fast and the\nFurious <\/em>franchise or reruns of The French Connection<\/a><\/em>,\nand you want to get back in touch with the reactions of the typical American\ndistracted driver, here you go!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Story characters can be followed on-foot too, of course. The\nArt of Manliness guide on What\nto Do If You\u2019re Being Followed<\/a> gives common-sense advice on detecting and\neluding people following you\u2014assuming they are everyday muggers and not trained\nespionage agents, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 It all starts with\nbeing aware of your surroundings and policing your social media, two tactics\nyour characters may\u2014or may not\u2014follow. Is there some reason your character is\nhyper-aware? Characters make mistakes (aren\u2019t they fun?) but they also are\nresourceful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This related post from last summer received lots of good feedbackt:\nWriting about Risky Encounters<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo: “Driving in\nmy car”<\/a> by de Luque<\/a>,\ncreative commons license CC BY-NC 2.0 <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crime-writers (and moviegoers) are attuned to that staple of adrenalin-pumping action, the car chase. It doesn\u2019t matter whether the pursuit is from the perspective of the follower or the followee\u2014\u201cThat red car\u2019s been behind me since Cleveland!\u201d\u2014they can be fun … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Is Somebody Following Me? - story characters need just the right balance of cluelessness and skills","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[174,29],"tags":[1368],"class_list":["post-7945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-first-draft-blog","category-writing","tag-surveillance"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/driving.jpg?fit=523%2C519&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-249","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7945"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7947,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7945\/revisions\/7947"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}