4 Plotting Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

there's no such thing as a perfectly plotted book in any story you're bound to find plot holes flawed character logic and boring scenes plus it's just not possible to please every reader so when you're constructing your plot take some of that pressure off of yourself and just focus on telling a story that makes you excited to share it with the world to create that confidence in your work you can avoid these four common plotting pitfalls I've encountered as a developmental editor reader and writer one a lack of personal stakes to an unfocused trajectory three a slow middle and four unsatisfying payoffs let's examine each of these along with some examples and solutions number one a lack of personal stakes what are the characters stand to lose that's meaningful to them in many stories the stakes include physical death the death can come in different forms there's the death of a relationship of one's pride or reputation of one's hopes and dreams and victor hugo's lay miserab the Paris uprising of 1832 as well as illness threaten the characters lives but they also face more personal types of death escape convict Jean Valjean stands to lose his freedom Police Inspector Javert in turn will lose his honor as a man of justice who doesn't capture Jean Valjean and Fantine risk your daughter growing up in abject poverty if she doesn't sacrifice herself in every way whether it's the loss of a loved one the characters homeland or their sense of self-worth these fates are often worse than death because they must grapple with the pain after the fact what's at stake should 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 them but it's not as emotionally compelling as learning that the big bad is the heroines father and she feels she's the only one who can stop him 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 some they want to claim as their own and because of those powerful personal relationships they can't just ignore the problem they are driven to solve it an example of highly personal stakes comes from the two princesses of boom are by Gail Carson Levine a children's fantasy novel the protagonist Addie is perpetually fearful and depends on her sister and Merrill's bravery then meryl falls ill with the grey death and Addie aches to find the cure before her sister dies even though she's not the brave adventurer her sister is if Addie were simply motivated to find a cure for her entire kingdom that would be an admirable goal but with her sister dying it adds a personal motivation along with a ticking time bomb what's more she must overcome her own fears to achieve her goal with novels that are primarily character driven the personal stakes often involve damaging or changing relationships with other people particularly when it comes to their perception of others or themselves holid Hosseini's and the mountains echoed features nine interconnected stories all the characters caught in troubled relationships in one story a boys positive opinion of his father is at stake instead of being a good man his dad might actually be a war criminal in another tale a woman's daughter becomes sick and she fears the worst childhood leukemia or lymphoma a parent at risk of losing their child is a deeply personal heartache as we can feel in the woman's thoughts she's furious with herself for her illness stupidity opening herself up like this voluntarily to a lifetime of worry and anguish it was madness sheer lunacy a spectacularly foolish and baseless faith against enormous odds that a world you do not control will not take from you the one thing you cannot bear to lose faith that the world will not destroy you I don't have the heart for this she actually says this under her breath I don't have the heart for this at that moment she cannot think of a more reckless irrational thing then choosing to become a parent so think about personal stakes in terms of character relationships can they protect their family from harm if they tell their significant other their big secret will their partner's stay with them or leave if they choose to come out of the closet will they risk losing the affection of their friends and family the story happens because of the main character their role couldn't be filled by just anyone ask yourself what happens if the protagonist walks away if there are no negative consequences that only affect them in character the stakes aren't personal enough give the protagonist someone to care about number two an unfocused trajectory as readers we want books to surprise us at the same time too much randomness can leave us wondering where is the story going what's the character even trying to accomplish this is often a result of unclear character goals when the protagonist is wandering aimlessly there's nothing for the reader to anticipate or look forward to say you have a story where a young boy witnesses his parents accidental deaths then he joins a traveling circus after that he becomes a chef's apprentice 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 greater focus on her fiction University blog author Janice Hardy states that some stories are all premise and no plot meaning they're based on an appealing main idea but there's no real plot because the story lacks character goals conflict and stakes Hardy compares examples from The Wizard of Oz premise a farm girl gets transported by tornado to a magical world of talking animals wizards and witches plot a farm girl transported by tornado to a magical world must travel to the capital city to ask a wizard for her way home Hardy also says 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 a happens then you might have a premise novel I've linked Janice Hardy's blog post in the video description the premise versus plot problem is the issue in my example with the young boy his parents died and he wanders from place to place that's just a premise not a plot adding an external goal could help after his parents deaths maybe the protagonist wants his family name to become famous which had been his mom and dad's dying wish so he joins the circus his mom once worked at in hopes of becoming a headliner but then he gets kicked out for trying to rescue the Lions and he decides to become a famous chef working for the man his father wash dishes for then while cooking food at a festival he falls in love with a girl and feels that instead of finding immortality through fame he wants to attain that by passing along his family name to their future children you could also add an internal character arc the protagonist feels lost after his parents deaths and no longer knows how to define his identity so each of these destinations and the people he meets at the circus the chef's kitchen the festival are his attempts at finally finding his place in the world again having both an external goal and an internal arc is ideal usually they're intertwined in the above example the protagonist quest for fame overlaps with his desire to find a new version of home character goals can transform over the course of the story as part of the trajectory a well-constructed plot often moves along a cause-and-effect chain with the previous event motivating the character to pursue 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 pinnacle of his life he has a beautiful fiancee a burgeoning career as a ship's captain miss stellar reputation all that is ruined and Foreman jealous of his successes were fearing the secrets he knows frame him for treason Dante's is imprisoned for years but he befriends a man who tells him of a treasure hidden on the island of Monte Cristo after he escapes prison Dante's finds the treasure in a decade later he reimagine society as the wealthy 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 all of them he doomed these unknown men to every torment that his inflamed imagination could devise while still considering that the most frightful were too mild and above all too brief for them it's easy to trace the cause and effect chain of events Dante's internal arc also gives the narrative a sense of structure as he shifts from optimistic to jaded his revenge mission is clear throughout as we can see and his dialogue what is truly desirable a possession that we cannot have so my life is devoted to seeing things that I cannot understand and obtaining things that are impossible to have I succeed by to means money and will if it's not clear what your story is really about you might be chasing too many character goals will he find his mother's killer and discover who stole his car and be promoted at work and get the girl you could also be trying to tackle too many internal arcs or themes how will she come to terms with her divorce understand her sexuality forgive her mother and learn what it means to be a good teacher you can definitely have multiple threads at once but it can help to view them as three and her woven trajectories the characters external goals what they want to go out and do in the world whether it's attend school find their father or destroy a city the internal arc you as the author have planned for the character such as the protagonist discovering something new about themselves like realising their true heritage and the personal relationships that might change over the course of the story they acquire a love interest become estranged from their family kill the antagonist if your plot feels unfocused define how the characters goals attitudes and relationships change over time and use that to create a thread connecting the beginning middle and end number three a slow middle for many writers the muddy middle is responsible for slow pacing point a and point B are clear enough but the path to get there can seem unclear resulting in the characters just running in place the plot not really going anywhere you might have a slow middle if the protagonist is comfortable where they are unsure what to do next for several chapters doing nothing except waiting for something travelling across a vast landscape worrying about the same thing over and over like the characters always thinking about how they can't trust anyone a feeling they express every other page or so experiencing a repetitive conflict for example for scenes that involve running away from bad guys having circular conversations with other characters for example repeatedly arguing with their spouse about the kids it never coming to a decision the best way to test for slow pacing is to ask your beta readers or critique partners what parts felt slow to you ask why those parts felt slow then determine if you can a cut those scenes or B replace those scenes with something more exciting that accomplishes the same objectives which is what my adding spice to a scene video is all about if your story is on the lengthy side think of the most boring or repetitive scene and cut that one then think of the next least exciting scene and consider cutting that one and so on until you reach your ideal word count however pacing isn't really about word count the key is forward momentum novel can be 400,000 words and still have great pacing because things are constantly changing there are new plot developments the character relationships are evolving the setting shifts what keeps readers reading our unanswered questions this applies to all genres what's in the envelope why does Richard hate his father what will happen when Carol confronts her abusive ex-husband you can present a cycle of questions and reveals one of these reveals might even be a midpoint reversal this is when something major changes for the main character around the 40 to 60% mark if the characters goal was to reach the floating Castle to find her husband whoops now it's and ruins destroyed in battle or the character thought for years that his dad had killed his brother nope his mom was a culprit and his dad entirely innocent it doesn't need to be a huge plot twist but rather something that forces the protagonist to take a different action that they had originally planned this breaks up the monotony and gives the characters new things to worry and wonder about the young adult sci-fi novel unwind by Neal Shusterman uses the midpoint reversal to maintain the openings fast pace in this near future dystopia parents can choose to have their unruly teenagers unwound meaning all of the child's organs are transplanted into new donors the story opens with a bang three teenagers scheduled for an unwinding cross pass and flee together the teens encounter obstacle after obstacle but they managed to escape through an underground railroad type of system that leads them to a place called the graveyard where other unwinds are in hiding including a bully 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're all in a truck with some other kids being transported to what they've been told is a safe haven Rolland sitting toward the front turns to the driver and asks where are we going yeah asking the wrong guy the driver answers give me an address I go there I look the other way and I get paid this is how it works says another kid who had already been in the truck when it arrived at Sonja's we get shuffled around one safe house for a few days then another and then another each one is a little bit closer to where we're going you gonna tell us where that is asks Roland the kid looks around hoping someone else might answer for him but no one comes to his aid so he says well it's only what I hear but they say we end up in a place called the graveyard no response from the kids yes the rattling of the truck the graveyard the thought of it makes Risa even colder Schusterman generates intrigued by not giving the characters or the readers all the information at once we start with the question where are they being taken the answer of the graveyard leads to even more questions about what this place might be like as the characters get used to their surroundings in their new leader the midpoint reversal introduces a different problem someone goes missing and Roland is a definite suspect this escalates into accusations and riots which propels the story into its climax all these new narrative uncertainties prevent the book's middle chunk from dragging oh well the characters do in the graveyard since Roland is a conflict grenade ready to explode what trouble will he create what happened to the missing kid how will the culprit be punished in this lawless place so the midpoint reversal reinvigorates the plot by changing the setting introducing new characters and adding new complications if you're really struggling with a slow middle it might help to have the character achieve their primary objective at the midpoint but it's not what they expected so they have to reevaluate what they want that can serve as your midpoint reversal take the example from earlier with the floating Castle destroyed the protagonist discovers her husband was taken captive and is to be executed which increases the stakes ticking time-bomb hovers over her head as she races to infiltrate the enemy camp and save him before it's too late most books with slow middles should have made their ending the midpoint reversal and then followed the story from there in a new direction room by Emma Donoghue does this effectively a mother and son have been locked in a room for years by rapist and the mother desperately wants to escape I somewhat expected the story to end with her escaping the room but to my surprise that was the midpoint the story continues after they leave the room to show that things don't end happily ever after at the moment she's saved she and her son still have to deal with the trauma of their time in the room those narrative questions drive the story into the last act how will this boy who has never seen the outside world react to it what will happen when the woman reunites with her family how will the man responsible be punished this adds a layer of realism and allows Donahue to explore deeper questions about human psychology at the midpoint you might also take away the protagonists support system such as killing off or having them argue with a friend or perhaps they lose all their money another character could betray them where they suddenly need to finish the task sooner than expected the princess is now getting married in three days not three weeks maybe the protagonist learns that something they previously believed is wrong their sister was thought to be dead but is actually alive adding a midpoint reversal allows you to continue that cycle of questions and reveals number four unsatisfying payoffs if narrative questions are what keep the pace moving forward then the answers the reveals the payoffs to those questions are what drive your readers to leave positive reviews with an unsatisfying payoff the author has made a promise to the reader and not delivered on it say there's a character who always talks about how much they'll owe with their brother and how they'll kill him if they ever see him again as a reader I'm going oh this is juicy and I'm expecting that confrontation but if the brothers never confront each other I'll be disappointed the author has promised me future conflict and then never delivered any payoff even when the author does deliver on that promise the payoff might be weak all that build-up but and it fizzles out instead of heating up the story cools down this is usually a result of not pushing the characters to their limits the author doesn't introduce any bigger conflict plot twists or surprises to use my earlier examples say the wife who's searching for her husband goes to the floating castle and discovers he moved to the next village over or the son who thinks his father murdered his brother finds out yeah he was right all along even about his dad's motivations no surprises here these are boring answers to the narrative questions because there's no conflict for the characters to wrestle with the situation should 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 crescendos increasing in intensity main character gets trapped in a lie and he decides to roll with it because it's easier than telling the truth but then his subsequent lies grow bigger and bigger until he's dug himself in a hole that's impossible to escape without ruining his life it's like you're inflating a balloon until the air pressure becomes too great and it has to pop and for Evan Hanson the audience expects that his lies will be exposed and we're waiting for the moment when that balloon pops unsatisfying payoffs can happen at any point in a story but endings are especially susceptible to this problem the climax ends with a whimper instead of with a bang a few methods for ending with a big bang include plot twist death character turning points and earned triumphs oftentimes a combination of all four plot twists are a reversal of expectations where the story seems to be heading toward one ending but suddenly changes course the character receives or reveals new information that makes you view the whole story in a new light I won't spoil them but some books with great twist endings are gone girl Fight Club dark matter atonement Ender's Game Life of Pi these broken stars and Mockingjay death can also act as a type of plot twist if it comes as a surprise to the reader this could be the death of a villain the main character or an important minor character and it should always serve a purpose beyond shock value it might prove a point about the novel's theme we're up the stakes by showcasing the villains villainy or serve as a heroic sacrifice maybe it's the culmination of tensions between different characters it could be an expected death that you hope doesn't happen like in tragic tearjerkers with a character turning point the protagonist must make a big choice the one they've been confronting for most of the novel this is the moment 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 an earned triumph shows the characters have experienced hardship changed and lost things important to them these endings are bittersweet but ultimately happy through perseverance suffering and sacrifice they have made it out the other side they defeat their enemy they arrive at their destination they find freedom almost always at a cost everything in life and in story comes at a price after a lot of death Mockingjay and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and an earned triumph so does East of Eden with a father finally forgiving his son children's stories often focus on a main character going on an adventure and coming out better off in the end they follow their heart without losing their values like Charlie does and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory resisting the greed that caused the other children to fall into a chocolate river or inflate into a giant blueberry a book that uses all four strategies and its ending is the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis I'm going to spoil the end of this book so if you want to skip this part click forward two minutes as the story goes for human children travel into the magical world of Narnia where the White Witch has cast a spell of eternal winter the four children join forces with the lion Aslan to defeat the which a character turning-point happens at the midpoint when one of the children Edmund chooses to betray the others inside with the White Witch however at the end of the book he regrets his and rejoins the side of good fighting alongside his siblings death comes in the form of Aslan sacrifice he gives his own life in exchange for Edmunds but this isn't a true death as Aslan comes back to life which feels appropriate given the story is a Christian allegory what follows is the earned triumph where they defeat the white witch after experiencing the pain of Edmunds betrayal and Aslan's death and her birth they're all crowned as kings and queens of gnarnia the last scene delivers a few plot twists the four of them spend decades and Narnia before coming upon the Wardrobe again and when they pass through they are once again children with no time having passed since they left the professor they're staying with not only believes their story but also implies he once visited Narnia himself he assures them yes of course you'll get back to Narnia again someday once a king in Narnia always a king in Narnia but don't go trying to use the same route twice indeed don't try to get there at all it'll happen when you're not looking for it and don't talk too much about it even among yourselves and mention it to anyone else unless you find that they've had adventures of the same sort themselves the narrator ends the story on a more open-ended note informing the reader that more tales are to come and that is the very end of the adventure of the Wardrobe but if the professor was right it was only the beginning of the adventures of Narnia 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 delivering on the promises he's made to the reader with questions like how the great battle between good and evil turn out what will happen to Edmund the traitor will the children ever return home even if the ending didn't work for you personally it showcases how one writer has created a cohesive narrative think about the promises you've made to your readers what questions have you got them excited about if the answers make the reader go Oh instead of Oh try brainstorming a list of ten other ways that question could be answered and choose the path that would stir up the most conflict and excitement to avoid these pitfalls remember that plot grows from who the characters are what they want and what they're willing to do to get it try to surprise your readers by letting your characters face tremendous obstacles and their greatest fears and let them 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 focus trajectory smooth pacing and satisfying payoffs but it's been analyzed to death in other blogs and videos I enjoyed the breakdown on writers edit which I've linked in the description Suzanne Collins uses a three-act dramatic structure and that's one of many frameworks that might help you nail down your plot our characters change within the crucible of conflict and choosing change over stagnation is the essence of story what plotting problems have you faced recently I'd love to hear your angst in the comments whatever you do keep writing [Music]

Channel: Diane Callahan - Quotidian Writer

Views: 62,539

Rating: 4.9651122 out of 5

Keywords: writing motivation, how to write, fiction, literature, story, storytelling, creative writing, how to plot, plotting, midpoint reversal, slow middle, three-act structure, narrative, novel, novel writing, books, booktube, authortube, Diane Callahan, Quotidian Writer, writer, novelist, Unwind, Neal Shusterman, Emma Donoghue, The Two Princesses of Bamarre, Gail Carson Levine, C.S. Lewis, plot breakdown, writing analysis, writing inspiration, plotting a story, plotting a novel

Id: HaNhOwYdcdw

Length: 26min 12sec (1572 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 20 2019