Is Your Plot Viable?

Thank you for your visit and ongoing support. This weeks blog will be discussing how to make your story’s plot viable. I have no authors on board with me this week so this may be a short blog. Here goes...

The best way to start when discussing believability is if you can’t come up with a realistic way to get your character out of a circumstance you have put them in, then you should not have put them there in the first place!

The best way to produce a believable story/plot is to draw up a rough outline of the events. Josh Logan, an American playwright, said the best formula for a drama is “to run the hero up a tree in the first act, throw rocks at him in the second act, and get him down the tree in the third act.” Basically, provide your character with a difficult situation (put him in a tree), add other ingredients to make the situation worse (throw rocks at him), then help him overcome/get out of the situation (get him down from the tree). 

Always question what you write. If the answers you form aren’t believable then what you’re writing isn’t either! Why did this group of people trust the spiteful old lady they’ve never met? How did they even get onto the peak of K2? When they were left alone why did none of them use a phone or tell someone where they were going?

Have you ever watched a horror movie and asked why the next victim of the killer runs up the stairs when she knows there’s no way out up there? Or why do these teenagers insist on not taking a phone when the travel to a dark, spooky part of America? It’s these things that make us not believe a story and it’s the same when writing. If there’s a question that cannot be answered sensibly, you have probably written something implausible. 

Read through your work and decide if what you have written is necessary to the plot. “Would the plot be ruined if I cut this scene?” “Does this scene help the book move forward?” If the answer is ‘no’, cut the scene. You’ll only bore the reader and make your book drag along. 

Be sure not to insert ‘convenient’ occurrences. For example; Mollie really wants to be a singer and at school she meets a new teacher who just so happens to be manager of a recording studio on the side. Make everything you write realistic. Achievements aren’t achievements if no one has worked for it. 

I find it helps to mind map characters to aid with the plot. This way I can see who each character is in relation to my leading role. 

So my top tips fro creating a viable plot: 

1. Question what you write to test its believability
2. Don’t include convenient or trite happenings
3. Mind map characters to help you remembers who’s on who’s side. 

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:)