250 Things You Should Know About Writing by Chuck Wendig Read Free Book Online

that are just plain uncertain in their outcome -- and then characters must deal with the consequences of those decisions. A character gives up a baby. Or buys a gun. Or enters the dark forest to slay Lady Gaga. Anytime a character makes a choice, the narrative branches. Events unfold because she chose a path. That's it. That's plot. Choice and consequence tighten together, ratcheting tension, creating suspense. Choice begets event.
     
10. Plot Is Promise
    Plot offers the promise of Chekov and his gun, of Hitchcock and his bomb under the table. An event
here
leads to a choice
there
which spawns another event
over there
. Foreshadowing isn't just a literary technique used sparingly: it lurks in the shadow of every plot turn. Plot promises pay-off. A good plot often betrays this promise and does something different than the audience expects. That's not a bad thing. You don't owe the audience anything but your best story. But a plot can also make hay by doing exactly what you expect: show them the gun and now they want to see it fire.
     
11. Let Characters Do They Heavy Lifting
    Characters will tell you your plot. Even better: let them run and they'll goddamn
give it to you
on a platter. Certainly plot can happen from an external locus of control -- but you're not charting the extinction of the dinosaurs or the lifecycle of the slow loris. Plot is like Soylent Green:
it's made of people
. Characters say things, do things, and that creates plot. It really can be that simple. Authentic plot comes from internal emotions, not external mechanics.
     
12. Chart The Shortest Point Between Beginning And End
    One way to be shut of the nonsensical, untenable plot is to cut through all the knots. If we are to assume that a plot is motivated by the choices and actions of characters -- and we must assume that, because who else acts as prime mover? -- then we can also assume that characters will take the most direct path through the story as they can. That's not to say it'll be the
smartest
path, but it will be forthright as the character sees it. No character creates for himself a convoluted path. Complex, perhaps. Convoluted? Never. Characters want what they want and that means they will cut as clear a path to that goal as they can. A convoluted, needlessly complex plot is just the storyteller showing off how clever he is. And no audience wants that. Around these parts, we hunt and kill the preening peacocks and wear their tail-feathers as a headdress.
     
13. On The Subject Of "Plot Holes"
    Plot holes -- where logic and good sense and comprehensible sequence fall into a sinking story-pit -- happen for a handful of reasons. One, you weren't paying attention. Two, your plot is too convoluted and its untenable nature cannot sustain itself. Three, you don't know what the fuck is happening, and maybe also, you're drunk. Four, the plot is artificial, not organic, and isn't coming out naturally from what the characters need and want to do. Five, you offended Plot Jesus by not sacrificing a goat. You can't just fix a plot hole by spackling it over. It's like a busted pipe in a wall. You need to do some demo. Get in there. Rip out more than what's broken. Fill in more than what's missing.
     
13. If The Characters Have To Plan, So Do You
    Many writers don't like to outline. Here's how you know if you should, though: if your characters are required to plan and plot something -- a heist, an attack on a moon bunker, a corporate take-over -- then you're a fool if you think
these imaginary people
have to plan but you don't. This is doubly true of genre material. A murder mystery for example lives and dies by a compelling, sensible plot. So plan the plot, for Chrissakes. This isn't improvisational dance. Take some fucking notes, will you?
     
14. Set Up Your Tentpoles
    A big tent is propped up by tentpoles. So too is your plot. Easy way to plan without getting crazy: find those events in your plot that are critical, that must happen for the whole story