Ten Things About Writing by Joanne Harris

Author:Joanne Harris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: September Publishing
Published: 2020-05-05T00:00:00+00:00

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Troubleshooting

If, like me, you tend to allow your plot to evolve in a fluid way, rather than planning ahead, you’re likely to find yourself having to deal with one or more of these problems when it comes to the editing stage …

1. The Bad Beginning. Ensure your readers are drawn into the story as early as you possibly can. Info-dumping, excessive scene-setting, or long inroads into character backstory can usually all be dispensed with until you’ve got your reader hooked.

2. The Saggy Middle. It’s easy to build up tension at the beginning of a book, but round about the middle, there’s often a moment when the plot sags. This is the time to look at your plot structure, to make sure there’s still enough tension to keep it going, to identify where it starts to sag, and to rebuild it as necessary.

3. The Plot Bunny. Chasing a plot bunny or rogue subplot can sometimes lead you dangerously far from your main plot. If this happens, you’ll need to be brutal. Go back to where you left your plot, and cut away the excess. And you never know, it may be useful later.

4. The Plot Hole. These tend to happen when you haven’t thought out all the logistics of your developing plot. Maybe you’ve overlooked the timeline, or you’ve neglected a character. You’re probably going to have to drop in a scene or two to fill in the gaps.

5. The Strangulena Effect. As demonstrated in Roger Zelazny’s ambitiously complicated fantasy Roadmarks, this is where the author of a complex plot loses sight of a key player for long enough to forget about them altogether. And if you do, you might ask yourself whether you really needed them at all.

6. The Attack of the Killer Plot Device. This happens when a key element of your plot emerges too conveniently to be entirely plausible, thereby causing damage to your readers’ suspension of disbelief. There’s no escaping this one, I’m afraid. You’re going to have to let it go. It may mean reworking some parts of your plot – but that’s better than losing your readers’ respect.

7. The Cup of Tea Syndrome. This is the classic rushed ending flaw: when you’re so eager to get to the end of the story that you botch the ending. Give it three weeks, then write it again, making sure you give it time to reach its climax properly.

8. The Brick Wall. This is most common with writers like me, who don’t always plan every aspect of the plot ahead: sometimes you just can’t figure out where the plot will go to next. Don’t beat yourself up: give it time. Work on something else for a bit, and the missing piece will come to you eventually.

9. The Underwhelming Plot Twist. This is where the plot builds up to something less than a climax. Maybe it’s just not surprising enough. Maybe it’s too surprising, because you haven’t foreshadowed sufficiently. Either way, it’s a deal breaker. You’ll need to rethink it completely.

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