Is There Such Thing As a Bad Plot?

Photo by Greg Westfall, used under
Creative Commons licence.

Why did they do that?

You want to throw the book across the room.

Your heroine has just put herself in danger for no reason. The hero has lost his temper over something trivial and broken up with the heroine. These characters make no sense.

You decide life is too short and turn on Netflix.

When dissecting a disappointing novel or movie, it’s easy to blame a poor story on bad plot, characterization or dialogue.

But, I suggest, these may only be symptoms of a single problem: the author was unable to convince you of ‘why’.

Why did the heroine throw herself in danger? Why did the hero really leave?

If the author can convince you that the path chosen was the only one that made sense to the character, then you aren’t going to be bothered that the heroine just jumped from a plane without a parachute. It was her only option! Her country/sense of identity/loved one/integrity was at stake.

If you believe the character’s motivations, you’re empathizing with them, and wondering whether they’ll ever reach their goal or not.

But if you’re frustrated with what seems to be a silly decision, you won’t care that the dialogue is witty or the description is poetic.

I believe there are few bad story ideas, just under-developed character motivations.

Even good books can be made great by strengthening the reasons why characters made the decisions they did.

Read the last scene you wrote. Find a decision a character made. Can you make that decision the only logical path, given the position you’ve put them in? What is at risk if they follow any other course of action? Can you increase those risks?

The more we understand why, the louder we’ll cheer as the character achieves their goal.

Jessica Kate is an Australian writer. She prefers the term 'writer' because it's too hard to say 'training developer, aspiring author and former journalist' in one mouthful.

She loves reading anything by Jenny B Jones, watching The Proposal, and writing Christian contemporary fiction full of romance and drama. 

Her manuscript, Hating Jeremy Walters, was a finalist in the 2015 Frasier Awards and she's currently working on her second novel.

 She loves connecting with reader and writers at Facebook, Instagram, and her website.

The Perils of Pantsing when you’re a Plotter

By Narelle Atkins

A few weeks ago I independently published my eighth book, a contemporary Christian romance novella that I wrote for Love Blossoms, a multi-author indie box set. I’ve always been a plotter, and I’ve written detailed outlines for my seven previously published books.

For my latest book, The Bridesmaid’s Hero, I decided to try something different. The time frame for the novella project was tight. I agreed to write the book in mid-October, and I needed to indie publish it on Amazon Kindle in January.

The three month time frame included the Christian Writers Conference in Victoria where I presented a workshop, a One-Day workshop I presented in Sydney for the Australian Christian Writers Fellowship, an additional interstate weekend away for my son’s golf tournament, the end of school year in December, and the busy lead up to Christmas.

I signed up for NaNoWriMo but I didn’t have time to put together a detailed outline with index cards (my usual process) before the end of October.

In November I became a pantser for this story. I enjoyed the freedom of writing and discovering more about the characters as the story progressed. I had a basic story outline developing in my mind that included the main turning points, climax, dark moment and resolution. Without preconceived ideas from the outline on what should be happening in each scene, I was able to explore different directions that naturally evolved from the story. I gained a new perspective on character-driven plotting. It was fun and exciting.

There was also a downside. I discovered the perils of pantsing when I was used to plotting. My basic story structure was robust and I didn’t need to add or delete scenes. But there were other issues that needed to be addressed.

I didn’t have time to rest the story before I sent it to my critique partners and beta readers. On December 26 I finished writing and editing the first version of the story. I had a copy editing deadline of January 10 and a box set deadline of January 15.

My lovely critique partners and beta readers read the early version of the story during the Christmas and New Year break. They found a number of problems that I didn’t usually encounter when I outlined my stories in advance.

The first third of the story was messy. Many of the character motivations were unclear because I’d unknowingly changed my mind about the details as I wrote. This included details in the back story. For example, the relationship between the heroine and the hero’s mother was inconsistent. Did they know each other before the story started? In one scene they did, in another scene it seemed like the opposite was true. 

My time line was off. The time references in the scene transitions needed to be tracked and adjusted. During the editing process when I reviewed the feedback from my critique partners and beta readers, I reverse engineered an outline in an Excel Spreadsheet and dealt with the time line problems.

I learned a lot from experimenting with my writing process. I like having time to brew my stories in advance, and rest my stories before I edit. An outline helps me to keep track of the details and generates fewer time line, back story and character inconsistencies.

I’m currently writing my ninth book. For my new novella I’ve typed up pages of background information. I’m writing a fast and rough first draft as I complete my outline. For my traditionally published books I wrote proposals in advance (three chapters plus synopsis).

Are you a plotter or a pantser? Have you tried different writing methods? Do you have a defined writing process, or does it change depending on the book? I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

A fun loving Aussie girl at heart, Narelle Atkins was born and raised on the beautiful northern beaches in Sydney, Australia. She has settled in Canberra with her husband and children. A lifelong romance reader, she found the perfect genre to write when she discovered inspirational romance. Narelle's contemporary stories of faith and romance are set in Australia.

Narelle's latest release, The Bridesmaid's Hero, is available for a limited time in the Love Blossoms box set.