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4 Plotting Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

May 30, 2021
There is no such thing as a book with a perfect plot, in no story are you sure to find plot holes, flawed character logic, and boring scenes, plus it's simply not possible to please every reader, so when you're constructing your plot, take some of it away. pressure. yourself and just focus on telling a story that you're excited to share with the world to build that trust in your work. You can

avoid

these four common plot mistakes I've encountered as a developmental editor, reader, and writer. One: the lack of personal interests. to an unfocused trajectory three a slow middle and four unsatisfactory payoffs let's examine each of these along with some examples and solutions number one a lack of personal risk what the characters can lose that is significant to

them

in many stories what is at stake includes the physical death Death can come in different forms, there is the death of a relationship, one's pride or reputation, one's hopes and dreams, and the secular misery of Victor Hugo, the Paris uprising of 1832, as well as illness, threaten the lives of the characters, but also face more personal types of escape from death.
4 plotting pitfalls and how to avoid them
The convict Jean Valjean risks losing his freedom. Police inspector Javert, in turn, will lose his honor as a man of justice if he does not capture Jean Valjean and Fantine runs the risk of her daughter growing up in absolute poverty if she does not sacrifice herself at all. the senses. Whether it is the loss of a loved one, the character's homeland or their sense of self-worth, these fates are often worse than death because they must deal with the pain after the fact, what is at stake must be specific to the protagonist and close to their heart if our hero wants to defeat the big bad for the good of humanity, that's very noble of him, but it's not as emotionally compelling as knowing that the big bad is the heroine's father and she feels like she's the only one. that can stop it.
4 plotting pitfalls and how to avoid them

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4 plotting pitfalls and how to avoid them...

A character could be driven by their loyalty to their king or their thirst for revenge against someone who hurt their loved one or an unhealthy obsession with someone they want to claim as their own and because of those powerful personal relationships they can't just ignore the problem they're in. driven to solve. is an example of what is at stake very personally comes from the two boom princesses are by Gail Carson Levine a fantasy novel for children the protagonist Addie is always afraid and depends on the bravery of her sister and Merrill, then Meryl falls ill with the gray death and Addie struggles to find the cure before her sister dies even though she is not the brave adventurer that her sister is, if Addie was simply motivated to find a cure for her entire kingdom that would be an admirable goal , but with the death of his sister, he adds a personal motivation along with a ticking clock.
4 plotting pitfalls and how to avoid them
What's more, she must overcome her own fears to achieve her goal with novels that are mainly based on the characters. Self-interest often involves harming or changing relationships with other people, especially when it comes to their perception of others or

them

selves. The characteristics of Hosseini and the mountains echo each other. nine interconnected stories all characters trapped in problematic relationships in one story a boy's positive opinion of his father is at stake instead of being a good man his father could actually be a war criminal in another story a woman's daughter sick and fears the worst childhood leukemia or lymphoma a father at risk of losing his child is a deeply personal pain, as we can feel in the thoughts of the woman who is furious with herself for her illness stupidity to voluntarily open herself like this to a life of worry and heartbreak it was madness pure madness a spectacularly foolish and unfounded faith against enormous odds that a world you don't control won't take away from you the one thing you can't bear losing faith that the world won't destroy you I don't have the heart for this, in She actually says this quietly I don't have the heart for this at that moment She can't think of anything more reckless and irrational than choosing to become a mother, so think about the personal risks in terms of character relationships, can you protect your Harm family Whether to tell their partner their big secret Whether their partner will stay with them or leave If they decide to come out Will they risk losing the affection of their friends and family? the story happens because the main character his role could not be played by just anyone, ask yourself what happens if the protagonist walks away if there are no negative consequences that only affect them in their character, the stakes are not personal enough, give the protagonist someone who cares, number two, an unfocused trajectory as readers who we want books to surprise.
4 plotting pitfalls and how to avoid them
At the same time, too much randomness can leave us wondering where the story is going, what the character is trying to accomplish. This is often the result of unclear character goals; when the protagonist wanders aimlessly, there is nothing for the reader to anticipate or expect. Let's say you have a story in which a boy witnesses the accidental death of his parents, then joins a traveling circus, and then becomes an apprentice chef. The book ends with him falling in love with a girl at a festival. This is an interesting sequence of events, but without any thread connecting them all it doesn't have as much emotional impact as it could.
This episodic story would benefit from more focus on its fiction. University Blog author Janice Hardy states that some stories are all premises and no plot, meaning they are based on a compelling Main Idea, but there is no real plot because the story lacks character goals, conflicts and risks. Hardy compares examples of the premise of The Wizard of Oz. A farm girl is transported by a tornado to a magical world of talking animals. Wizards and witches plot a farm girl transported by a tornado. To a magical world he must travel to the capital city to ask a magician his way home.
Hardy also says that if you can't describe what your novel is about in one sentence, even a bad sentence using the standard protagonist has X problem and she needs to do Y to win Z or happens to, then you may have a novel with a premise. I've linked Janice Hardy's blog post in the video description. The problem between premise versus plot is the problem in my example with the boy whose parents died and he moves away from their place. place that is just a premise not a plot, adding an external goal could help after the death of his parents, maybe the protagonist wants his last name to become famous, which had been the last wish of his mom and dad, so he joins the circus his mom once worked at in hopes. to become a headliner, but then he gets kicked out for trying to rescue the Lions and decides to become a famous chef who works for the man his father washes dishes for and then, while cooking food at a festival, he falls in love with a girl and feels that instead of finding immortality through fame, she wants to achieve that by passing on her last name to her future children, she could also add an internal character arc.
The protagonist feels lost after the death of his parents and no longer knows how to define his identity, so each of these. The destinations and people he meets at the circus The chef's kitchen The festival are his attempts to finally find his place in the world again Having both an external goal and an internal arc is ideal They are generally intertwined in the above example The protagonist's quest fame overlaps with his desire to find a new version of home. The character's goals can transform throughout the story as part of the path. A well-constructed plot often progresses along a chain of cause and effect, in which the previous event motivates the character to continue to the next plot point (take the classic adventure novel and revenge tale The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas Edmond Dantes is at the peak of his life, he has a beautiful fiancée, a flourishing career as a sea captain, a stellar reputation, all of that is ruined, and Foreman, jealous of his successes, feared that the secrets he knows would frame him for betrayal. .
Dante is imprisoned for years, but befriends a man who tells him about a treasure hidden on the island of Monte Cristo after escaping from prison. Dante finds the treasure a decade later. He reimagines society as the rich and mysterious Count of Monte Cristo the men who falsely accused him have become rich and powerful and one has even married his wife Dante's plots his revenge against them all condemned these unknown men to all torments that his inflamed imagination could devise while considering that the most frightening ones were too mild and, above all, too brief for them. It is easy to trace the cause and effect chain of events.
Dante's internal arc also gives the narrative a sense of structure as it moves from optimism to weariness with his revenge. The mission is clear at all times, as we can see, and its dialogue, what is truly desirable, a possession we cannot have, so my life is dedicated to seeing things I cannot understand and obtaining things that are impossible to have. I am successful with means, money and will. it's not clear what your story is really about, you might be chasing too many character goals, he'll find his mother's killer and find out who stole his car, he'll get promoted at work and get the girl, you might also be trying to addressing too many internal arcs or themes how he will come to terms with his divorce understanding his sexuality forgiving his mother and learning what it means to be a good teacher you can definitely have multiple threads at once but it can help to see them as three and their woven trajectories the objective external characters: what What they want to go out and do in the world, whether it's go to school, find their father, or destroy a city. the internal arc that you, as the author, have planned for the character, such as the protagonist, who discovers something new about himself, such as realizing his true heritage and personal relationships that may change over the course of the story become interesting love move away from their family kill the antagonist if their plot feels unfocused define how the characters' goals, attitudes, and relationships change over time and use that to create a thread that connects the relationships beginning middle and ending number three a slow middle for many writers the murky middle is responsible for the slow pace point a and point b are clear enough, but the path to get there may seem unclear, causing the characters to simply move in place and the plot don't really advance anywhere, there may be a slow middle ground if the protagonist is comfortable, where he's unsure of what to do next for several chapters doing nothing but waiting for something to travel across a vast landscape, worrying for the same thing over and over again, as if the characters are always thinking about how I can't trust anyone, a feeling they express every other page, or therefore experiencing repetitive conflict, for example in scenes involving running away from the bad ones, having circular conversations with other characters, for example, repeatedly arguing with your spouse about children, never amounts to a relationship. decision, the best way to test slow pacing is to ask your beta readers or fellow reviewers what parts seemed slow to you, ask why those parts seemed slow to you, and then determine if you can cut those scenes or replace them with something more exciting that achieves the goals.
Same goals, which is what adding flavor to a scene video is all about, if your story is long, think of the most boring or repetitive scene and cut it, then think of the next least exciting scene and consider cutting that one and so on until you reach the ideal word count, however, pacing is not really about word count, the key is forward momentum, the novel can be 400,000 words and still have great pacing because things are constantly changing, there are new developments in the plot, the relationships between the characters are evolving, the setting. change what keeps readers reading our unanswered questions this applies to all genres what's in the envelope why Richard hates his father what will happen when Carol confronts her abusive ex-husband you can present a cycle of questions and revelations one of These revelations could even be a midpoint reversal, this is when something changes majorly for the main character around the 40-60% mark if the character's goal was to get to the floating castle to find her husband, whoops! now they are ruins destroyed in battle or the character thought for years that his father had killed his brother, no, his mother was guilty and his father completely innocent, it doesn't have to be a big plot twist, but something that force the protagonist to take a different action than they had originally planned, this breaks the monotony and gives the characters new things to worry about and wonder about Neal Shusterman's young adult science fiction novel Unwind uses inversionfrom the midpoint to maintain the rapid pace of openings in this near-future dystopia.
Parents can choose to let their rebellious teenagers relax, which means that all children's organs are transplanted to new donors. The story begins with an explosion. Three teenagers scheduled for a relaxed crusade pass by and flee together. The teens encounter obstacle after obstacle, but manage to escape through an underground railroad-like system that takes them to a place called the cemetery. where other characters hide, including a thuggish antagonist at the end of the chapter, Schusterman builds narrative questions around this new setting before revealing it here. Roland is the antagonist, while Risa is one of the protagonists. They are all in a truck with other children. being transported to what they have been told is a safe haven Rolland, sitting up front, turns to the driver and asks where we are going, yes, I'm asking the wrong guy, the driver responds, give me an address, I'm going there, I look to the other side and they pay us that's how it works says another boy who was already in the truck when it arrived at Sonja's house they take us to a safe house for a few days, then to another and then to another, each one is a little closer "Are you going to tell us where that is," he asks Roland.
The boy looks around hoping that someone else will answer for him, but no one comes to his aid so he says well it's just what I heard but they say we ended up in a place called the cemetery there is no response from the children if the truck rattles the cemetery the idea makes Risa even colder Schusterman generates intrigued by By not giving the characters or the readers all the information at once, we start with the question where they are being taken, the cemetery's answer leads to even more questions about what this place might be like as the characters get used to their surroundings in their new surroundings. leader, the reversal of the midpoint introduces a different problem: someone disappears and Roland is a definite suspect.
This turns into accusations and riots that propel the story to its climax. All these new narrative uncertainties prevent the middle part of the book from dragging on. Oh well, the characters do it in the cemetery. Since Roland is a conflict grenade ready to explode, what problems will he create? What happened to the missing child? How will the guilty be punished in this lawless place? So reversing the midpoint revitalizes the plot by changing the setting, introducing new characters, and adding new complications if you're really struggling with a slow midpoint. It might be helpful for the character to achieve their main goal at the midpoint, but it's not what they expected, so they have to reevaluate what they want, which can serve as a reversal of the midpoint.
Take the previous example with the Floating Castle destroyed, the protagonist discovers that her husband was taken captive and must be executed, which increases the stakes. The ticking time bomb looms over her head as she races to infiltrate the enemy camp and save it before it's too late. Most books with slow middle parts should have done so. they made their ending at the inverted midpoint and then followed the story from there in a new direction, Emma Donoghue's Room does this effectively, a mother and her son have been locked in a room for years by a rapist and the mother wants to escape desperately.
She somehow expected the story. to end with her escaping the room, but to my surprise that was the halfway point, the story continues after they leave the room to show that things don't end happily ever after the moment she saves her, she and your child still have to deal with the trauma. From his time in the room those narrative questions carry the story to the last act: how will this child who has never seen the outside world react? what will happen when the woman is reunited with her family how the man responsible will be punished this adds a layer of realism and allows Donahue to explore deeper questions about human psychology at the halfway point, it can also take away the support system from the protagonists , like killing them or making them argue with a friend or maybe lose all their money, another character could betray them where I suddenly need to finish the task sooner than expected.
The princess will now get married in three days, not three weeks. Maybe the protagonist realizes that something he previously believed is wrong. Her sister was thought to be dead, but she is actually alive. Adding a reversal midpoint allows you to continue that cycle of questioning and reveal unsatisfactory results number four. If narrative questions are what keep the pace moving forward, then answers that reveal the results of those questions are what drive your readers to leave positive reviews with an unsatisfactory outcome. The author has made a promise. to the reader and not hand it over, saying that there is a character who always talks about how much they owe his brother and how they will kill him if they ever see him as a reader again.
I'm going to say, oh, this is juicy and I'm looking forward to that confrontation, but if the brothers never confront each other, I'll be disappointed that the author promised me future conflict and then never delivered any payoff, even when the author delivers on that promise. , the reward could be weak. but it fades rather than heats up the story cools down this is usually a result of not pushing the characters to their limits the author doesn't introduce any major conflict plot twists or surprises to use my previous examples says the wife you're looking for because Your husband goes to the floating castle and discovers that he moved to the next town or the son who believes his father murdered his brother discovers that yes, he was right all along, even about his father's motivations, there are no surprises here, these They are boring responses to the narrative. questions because there is no conflict for the characters to struggle with the situation it must go from bad to worse out of the frying pan and into the fire the musical and adapted novel dear Evan Hansen has a plot that naturally goes in crescendos increasing in intensity the main character is trapped into a lie and decides to move on because it's easier than telling the truth, but then his subsequent lies grow bigger and bigger until he digs himself into a hole from which it's impossible to escape without ruining his life.
It's like you're blowing up a balloon until the air pressure gets too big and it has to burst and for Evan Hanson the audience is waiting for his lies to be exposed and we're waiting for the moment when that balloon bursts. Unsatisfactory outcomes can occur at any point in a story, but endings are especially susceptible. Because of this problem, the climax ends with a whimper instead of an explosion. Some methods to end with a big bang include a plot twist. Death. Character turning points and triumphs gained. Often, a combination of all four plot twists are a reversal of the expectations in which the story appears. be heading towards an ending but suddenly changes course the character receives or reveals new information that makes you see the entire story in a new light.
I won't spoil it, but some books with very twisted endings are no longer around. Fight Club, Dark Matter Atonement, Ender. The game Life of Pi, these broken stars and the death of Mockingjay can also act as a type of plot twist, if it surprises the reader this could be the death of a villain, the main character or an important supporting character, and It should always serve a purpose beyond shock value, it could prove a point about the theme of the novel, we are raising the stakes by showing the villainy of the villains or serve as a heroic sacrifice, perhaps it is the culmination of tensions between different characters, it could be an expected death that you hope not.
It doesn't happen like in tragic tearjerkers with a turning point in the character, the protagonist must make a big decision that he has been facing for most of the novel. This is the moment when Jane Eyre decides she wants to be with Mr. Rochester, this is when Winston chooses whether or not to continue rebelling against Big Brother, this is the choice between immortality and death and Tuck Everlasting, a well-deserved triumph shows that the characters have experienced hardships, changed, and lost things important to them, these endings are bittersweet but ultimately happy. perseverance suffering and sacrifice they have managed to come out on the other side they defeat their enemy they reach their destination they find freedom almost always at a cost everything in life and in history has a price after a lot of death Mockingjay and Harry Potter and the Hallows of Death and a triumph won so does East of Eden with a father who finally forgives his son.
Children's stories often focus on a main character who goes on an adventure and comes out better in the end, following his heart without losing his values ​​like Charlie does. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory resisting the greed that caused the other children to fall into a river of chocolate or inflate themselves into a giant blueberry, a book that uses the four strategies and its ending is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis . to spoil the ending of this book, so if you want to skip this part, click forward two minutes as the story progresses of human children traveling to the magical world of Narnia, where the White Witch has cast a winter spell eternal with which the four children join forces. the lion Aslan to defeat which a turning point occurs in the character at the midpoint when one of the children, Edmund, chooses to betray the others who are inside with the White Witch, however, at the end of the book he repents and rejoins the side of the good fight.
His brother's death comes in the form of Aslan's sacrifice, he gives his own life in exchange for Edmunds, but this is not a true death as Aslan returns to life, which feels appropriate given the story is a Christian allegory. , what follows is the triumph won where they defeat the white witch after experiencing the pain of Edmunds' betrayal and Aslan's death and birth. They are all crowned kings and queens of Gnarnia. The last scene offers some plot twists. The four spend decades in Narnia before finding the Wardrobe. again and when they pass they are children again with no time having passed since they left, the professor they stay with not only believes their story but also implies that they once visited Narnia and assures them that yes, of course they will return. to Narnia again someday once a king in Narnia always a king in Narnia but don't try to use the same route twice in fact don't try to get there at all, it will happen when you are not looking for it and don't talk about it too much even among yourselves or mention it to anyone else unless you discover that they themselves have had adventures of the same kind.
The narrator ends the story on a more open note, informing the reader that there are more tales to tell. come and that is the end of the Wardrobe's adventure, but if the professor was right, it was only the beginning of Narnia's adventures. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is one of the most influential children's novels of all time, in part due to the author fulfilling the promises he made to the reader with questions such as how the great battle between good and evil will turn out, what will happen to Edmund the Traitor, if the children will ever return home, even if the ending didn't work out for you personally. show how a writer has created a coherent narrative think about the promises you have made to your readers what questions have excited them whether the answers make the reader say Oh instead of Oh try brainstorming a list of ten others ways that question could be answered and choose the path that causes the most conflict and emotion to

avoid

these

pitfalls

.
Remember that the plot emerges from who the characters are, what they want, and what they are willing to do to get it. Try to surprise your readers by letting your characters face tremendous obstacles and their greatest fears and allow them to have some satisfying successes along the way. The Hunger Games is an example of an incredibly well-plotted book that has high personal stakes, a focused trajectory, smooth pacing, and satisfying payoffs, but it's been analyzed to death in other blogs and videos. I enjoyed the breakdown of the issue. from the writers I linked in the description. Suzanne Collins uses a three-act dramatic structure and that is one of many frameworks that can help you nail down your plot.
Our characters change within the crucible of conflict. and choosing change over stagnation is the essence of the story. What plot problems have you faced recently? I'd love to hear your angst in the comments, whatever you do, keep writing.

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