Odd people

I’ve been listening to Odd John recently, and the character is so ‘high above’ regular humans that he sees them as friendly animals. Hi arrogance is abbrasive, but his overwhelming curiosity and passion for knowledge makes up for it and makes him a likable character.

How to write terribly smart characters without being terribly smart yourself? Probably by leaving a lot of it up to the imagination of the reader… however, getting the mannerisms and way of speaking/acting etc right, could be difficult.

Maybe it’s enough for the character to be ‘odd’. Different ways of thinking would be reflected in different ways of acting, so getting to know some strange, off-kilter, or even somewhat mad people might be a useful way to write a super smart character…

Sometimes, you can’t tell one from the other…