What Could Go Wrong?

A few days ago, I received a message, via Twitter, about a serious problem that writers often face. I decided to use this week’s blog post as an opportunity to answer it it. The message was as follows--

“I struggle with keeping a plot entertaining. I get a riveting idea for a story, but it seems like my stories are always between something. The moments of action are great and well received, but they don’t last long enough.”

-Joanna

Dear Joanna,

It strikes me that this problem is less an issue with your plot ideas, and more an issue with the way you’re writing your individual scenes.

Take Lord of the Rings for example. The basic premise is actually quite simple. The Dark Lord, Sauron, desires a ring of great power. He cannot be allowed to get it. At the Council of Elrond, Frodo is given a daunting task - to destroy the ring in the only way it can be destroyed: by throwing it into the fires of Mount Doom.

Most would agree that this plot has a lot of potential, but few realize how much work Tolkien did to keep things from becoming stagnant. Even using the very same premise, Frodo could have spent the vast majority of the book simply hiking through scenic landscapes and talking about how hard it was to carry the ring so great a distance. He could have snuck into Mordor and simply thrown the ring in the fire and been done with the whole damn thing! That version of the book could have had the exact same characters and a virtually identical plot, but it would never have had the success of the actual book. Why? Because the scenes that compose that story are lacking in conflict.

Now, you have the short solution to your problem: add conflict! Unfortunately, that, by itself, is a balancing act. Forcing conflict will make your story come across as melodrama - which is fine if you're writing a soap opera, but it is unsuitable for any other genre, including comedy. So, we're left with another question:

"How are we to naturally fill the 'between' moments with enough conflict to keep our story entertaining?"

Most of my writing guru colleagues, would probably point to Aristotle’s “Four Types of Conflict”:

Man versus Man

Man versus Nature

Man versus Society

Man versus Self

This might be helpful to some, but at its core, it is only a list of categories for already existing conflicts to be be shoved into. In my opinion, the ability to fill in the “between”, lies in a mode of thinking. Here are some key pieces of advice to help get yourself in the frame of mind to easily generate conflict--

Avoid a “Builder’s Mindset”

“This is going to be really good in a few chapters!”

“Once she finds out Brian’s secret, things will really pick up!”

“If I can just get her back into her lover’s arms somehow, I can continue with the story!”

If this kind of thinking sounds familiar, be very scared. You may be suffering from a Builder’s Mindset. Many writers build their stories like a Jenga tower - stacking one boring block after another until finally, KABOOM! It all comes crashing down!

Don't misunderstand. It’s fine to build a conflict, but you should always be searching for situations of CONSTANT CONFLICT.

For example, due to the nature of the ring, every step Frodo takes, is a step near someone who could try to rob him of it. This kind of conflict is what keeps readers turning the page. Any other conflict in the story must resolve itself - and when it does, you don’t want your characters to be stuck on Cloud 9 on a bright summer’s day… nothing is more boring than characters relieved of their burdens.

Look for Areas Where Your Character’s Goals Might Lead Them to Conflict

Let’s take a completely random goal. Let’s say your first person character wants to leave a forest with a freshly stolen pot of gold. Great. Wonderful. There are a lot of possible conflicts that could arise--

Man versus Leprechaun: The Leprechauns might have a use planned for that pot of gold. At the very least, it probably took them a long time to collect it. They don’t want to see it go.

Man versus Man: You’re stealing gold from cute little forest sprites… The guilt must be tremendous.

Man versus forest creatures: You’re destabilizing the economy for the whole forest. Tinker Bell was just approved for a loan so she could pay the mortgage on the hole in the tree behind the river. She and all her fairy friends now want to kick your ass.

et cetera…

Look for Areas Where Your Character’s Personality Might Lead Them to Conflict

This is typically the driving force of tragic plays. Hamlet’s inability to take action is what keeps him spiralling to his doom. Had he taken arms against his sea of troubles and killed his uncle/stepfather, Claudius, as he knelt in prayer, the play would have simply ended.

Constantly Ask Yourself, “What Could Go Wrong?”

Some of the world’s greatest authors constantly asked themselves this question. Tolkien was one of them. I can vividly imagine how the scene on the mountain Caradhras was brought about - Tolkien bent over his maps, muttering to himself: “Okay… So, I’m saving an orc attack, and the forces of Sauron and Saruman are both too far away… No, we can’t have a character slipping - that would be too melodramatic… No, it's too early for Boromir, and this kind of setting is too open... hm… ah! I bet Saruman could use his magic to force them off of the mountain, and into a place where the conflict is easier to control: the ruins of the Mines of Moria!”

Do this in your own story. Guide the conflict! Let’s say nothing has happened in your story for a while, and your character, Michael, is supposed to meet a super secret CIA contact. If all goes well, he will be able to get his identity, social security number and fingerprints placed back into the system… but what could go wrong?

• His contact is not there.

• He is there, but refuses to return his identity until Michael does something else.

• He is assassinated before Michael can get what he needs.

• He is there with a long sheet of taxes that he wasn’t paying the IRS during that comfortable time where he didn’t exist…

In asking yourself what can go wrong, you are, in essence, giving yourself a list of options. From there, choose the one that has the best balance of naturalness and intensity.

By using these modes of thought to keep your story in constant conflict, you cut out the “between”. If you focus on them as you write, your writing will never be the same.

How To Plan A Novel

Firstly, before you read this post, make sure you’ve seen my previous post, Tips For New Writers BEFORE You Begin A Project. If you’ve implemented those tips, you’ve now set the stage for your novel. You know the point of view you’ll be writing in, your approximate number of characters, your genre… In short, you know what kind of book you’ll be writing. The following steps go beyond that. They will get you to the point where you can finally sit down and put your words on paper.

Come Up With A Working Title

At this point, you likely only know, generally, what your book is about. It might seem like, at this stage, it’s a little early to come up with a title. It’s not. There are several reasons why I recommend you find one right away.

• Having a title makes your project feel more real.
• It can get you excited about a project, and can provide great motivation!
• It opens up the possibility of “writing into a title.” (If you choose a fantastic title before you begin writing, it may be easier to connect it with your story than trying to force one at the end.)
• It makes your project easier to talk about with friends and agents/publishers.

This is an especially vital step in your planning because many working titles don’t change. If you know what your story is about before you begin it, you may very well find the perfect title before you are over 10,000 words in. I should know. It happened to me with Tiny Instruments.

Write The Back Of Your Book

Okay, I don’t expect that you’ll be able to accurately summarize a book that hasn’t yet been written. Your back cover will undoubtedly change – but not only is this a great teaser to send off to anyone who asks about it. It helps you as a writer pinpoint what the essence of the novel is likely to be about. For some, this brief one or two paragraph future summary is all that is needed to begin a project. While I feel more comfortable making an outline (which I will discuss in the future steps), these paragraphs may be all that you personally need. Many might even ask the question, “Do writers even really need that much?” It’s arguable, but I believe they do. Not every writer has physically written these two paragraphs, but before they begin, they usually have this concept in their heads. If not, the book can be prone to meandering or it can become a string of loosely collected life events that result in a collection of meaningless stories. If that’s not what you want, I recommend spending five to thirty minutes on this little thought exercise. It might be more useful than you think!

List Areas Of Conflict

Conflict and characters are the two single most important parts of any story. Even with the best characters in the world, conflict is an undeniably vital ingredient of any good plot. You need to make sure you have enough.

Let’s say you want to write a story about a painter. She is extremely talented artistically, but is lost in a sea of other painters who have greater access to the connections she needs to succeed. Where is the conflict? The easy answer is the “Man vs. Man” struggle as your young heroin strives to outclass the other painters, and fights with galleries to have her work seen, and the “Man vs. Self” conflict that comes from her own desire to be the best painter that she can be, and her fears that, maybe, she is not as good of an artist as her peers have told her she is… On the surface, this seems like quite a bit of conflict, but don’t be fooled! If you sat down to write this book as is, you might be surprised at how little conflict is in her day-to-day life. Unless she is farcically battling with another painter or working behind the scenes to counteract the rampant sexism of the gallery head, her day to day living is just taken up by painting and praying! When you are deep in the planning stages, you need to make sure your story has daily conflict in some way or another. Ideally, you want it to center around the basic ideas you want to express in your novel. It would be strange if, for example, the leading problem that plagues our painter throughout the book has to do with her stalker ex-boyfriend. Irrelevant subplots can be the death of good fiction! Everything in your book should connect flawlessly with itself. By being honest with yourself about every possible point of conflict, you can make sure that you only start projects that won’t require irrelevant subplots or forced action of any sort.

Bullet Point Action List

I’ve looked over outlines that contained things like, “In this scene, Jason is feeling extremely sad because of the death of his mother. Though he is unaware of it himself, he slowly begins to distance himself from the rest of his family.” Simply put, authors who try to write out their outlines in large paragraphs of emotional description are using a lot of time on something that won’t be useful. You don’t want to be constantly referring to your outline to see where your characters are at emotionally – that just puts a wall between your character’s lives and emotions. If you over-plan emotions, not only can you actually make them harder to write, you will make them seem less natural. 

Doing an outline by paragraphs also tempts the author to write out certain exciting scenes before their proper time. Sometimes this works – I think most authors occasionally write scenes out of order – but it’s best to write things with the past behind you and the future ahead of you. If you overdo the description, you might be tempted to copy and paste from your outline when that time comes. This is another reason why I recommend a bullet point action list.

A bullet point action list is a brief summary of action that allows you room to adjust your character’s emotions as you see fit. Hands down, this is the best way to do an outline. It’s simple, and it doesn’t get in the way of your future flowing prose and strong connection with your character. Here’s a look at how a brief sequence of action might translate into a scene.

• Realizing his tires have been slashed, Peter calls his co-worker Kendra for a ride.
• Kendra is in a hurry, but reluctantly agrees.

“God damn it!” Peter shouted, startling poor Ernesto, Rosa’s child, as he waited for the school bus to arrive.

He looked up and down the street, but there was no sign of the culprits. Obviously he didn’t expect one. It was probably done in the dead of night, long prior to Monday’s head-pulsing hangover. Typical. Stupid criminals had to pick today of all days to pull this shit. It was as if they knew…

“Kendra… Did I catch you at a bad time? You sound a little out of breath.”

He was talking into his phone, holding three fingers out over his eyes to block the sun.

“Oh, I’m glad to hear that… Listen, I could use a ride… I know, but my car isn’t working… It just isn’t, okay? … Totally fine. I’ll wait… See you soon.”

Looking back at the bullet points, it’s clear that Peter’s personality isn’t factored into this kind of outline – nor is his emotional reaction. You don’t have to do this for every plot point in your book – even I don’t do that! I do, however, recommend doing it for your opening and any time you might get bogged down with writer’s block. Another great thing about action bullets is that you can adjust their scale to fit your needs. For instance, even though the two bullets in the example translated to a fairly decent sized paragraph, it would take quite a long time to do the bullets for an entire book on this scale! If you zoomed out a bit more, you might focus less on how Peter got together with Kendra that fateful day, and more on the lasting consequences of the visit, making it easier to do a complete outline of your book. In that case, your bullets might look more like this--

• The next day, as Kendra takes Peter to work, they get into an accident.
• Once out of the hospital, Peter finds he no longer has his job at the Laundromat.

For those who decide they do want to do a full outline of their book, this is the easiest and most complete way to do it. Remember, the scale of your points depends largely on how much planning you personally need.

With these steps, you should finally be ready to sit down and finish the single most important step in the completion of your novel: the first draft!

Writing Prompt

Write the first chapter of your novel. I'll edit up to 1000 words for free!