HOW TO DECIDE WHAT TO CUTThe past week has been a brain full of information. Incorporating scenes and sequels into your novel can seem overwhelming. If you’re like me, I learned about these small units of plot building well after I starting book 1.
What I realized was that I needed a lot more tension — a mean a lot more. There were scenes that were so full of description that it took away from the power of the story. Continue reading
I THINK I LEFT OUT AN ‘O’
Plot holes unfinished when not. What did you just say?? Oh, I’m sorry. Plot holes are like unfinished sentences when they are not filled in. They are like glaring, bright lights from the oncoming cars along a dark, winding country road. You can’t see where you are going, and it’s hard to focus. In essence, plot holes take you off the road…err out of the story.
We can highlight a couple. Every piece of work is up for criticism, and I cringe at the thought that one day my work will be critiqued just as harshly. Nevertheless, we begin.
In Black Swan with Natalie Portman, there’s an enormous plot hole. SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! If you don’t want to know the ending, skip down two paragraphs. In the end, Natalie Portman’s character dies from a self-inflicted stab wound. Before she dies, she dances the most amazing dance ever. But then she falls off the back of the stage and dies with the blood spilling out onto her dress. Continue reading
FIGURING OUT THE PLOT TO YOUR NOVEL
Here’s the thing. Sometimes in fiction, we have no problem creating the setting. We imagine gigantic skyscrapers that formally watch over the metropolis. Or we create quaint homes that hide beneath the brush, allowing wandering vines to trickle up the banisters.
We also have our characters. The sassy, smooth talking heroine who is still just a sucker for love. And we have the hero who is far beyond dumb, but somehow he manages to ask the right questions so that the reader can remain informed. We have our side characters whose only purpose, no matter how much we fight against it, is to make our main characters look better. Even though our side characters are three-dimensional in every sense of the word. Continue reading
William Stadler 