When characters do the unlikely, impossible, or uncomfortable, they’re called Contorting Characters.
Characters often contort when you create compound sentences. Sometimes the contortions aren’t horrible, and the reader will probably understand what the writer intended.
For instance, Jim walked across the room and looked out the door. By using and, it’s implied that Jim looked out the door at the same time he crossed the room, which is certainly possible, but perhaps not what the author intended. At best, it’s unclear, since the author could have meant that Jim crossed the room TO look out the door, or crossed the room and THEN looked out the door.
AND implies actions that occur at the same time.
TO and THEN imply a chronological order to the actions.
In our example about Jim, it probably isn’t a big deal if the reader misconstrues our meaning. After all, whether Jim looks out the door as he’s walking, after he’s walking, or is walking across the room with the purpose of looking out the door may not make that much difference.
But consider these examples:
“Mary hurried into class and sat at her desk.” (Mary can’t hurry and sit at the same time.)
“Bob painted the picture and stood back to admire it.” (Bob can’t paint and stand back at the same time.)
“Carly ran through the locker room and onto the field.” (Again, it’s impossible to do both these things at once.)
Introductory clauses, often used to vary sentence structure, can also cause characters to become contorted. “Running up the field, Kristen scored a goal,” implies that Kristen scored a goal as she ran up the field, rather than, she first ran up the field, then scored a goal.
Of course characters can sometimes do two things at once. “Josh sat in the chair and read a book.” Josh can even walk across the room and read a book, as long as he doesn’t bump into anything! You just want to make sure that when your characters are doing two things at once, that it’s possible for them to do so.
To avoid contorting characters, be specific in your word choice and think about the order of your character’s actions so you don’t confuse the reader or imply that your character is doing the impossible.