In which we have a DOH moment...

[jesshartley]

I've had the plot to this book worked out for a year now.

I've been writing on it, and am almost 65% done (thanks to some advice from AuthorM, and a couple of kick ass work days)...

Unfortunately, I've just discovered what may be a fatal flaw in my plot.

CRAP.

It's one of those "well, why didn't they just do "blah" and save her?" kind of things. The kind of things that, as a reader, I see sometimes and go "How did the protagonist get so stupid, why didn't they do X, that would be the logical thing to do" and now... now, I've got to figure out how to have the world stop them from doing X, as it kills the plot.

DAMMIT.

Comments

[secret-fire.livejournal.com]

Curses on all those observant readers! ;-)

[mythdude.livejournal.com]

Well duh, thats part of being human. :P Sometimes we make mistakes and can't pick the easiest choice. Maybe your protagonist was so stressed that they didn't realize they could have done one thing and saved them a bunch of time.

[lilithsaintcrow.livejournal.com]

LOL yeah, oh God. That happens to every writer, sweets. Just means more revising. *hisses, bares her fangs* Revision? Arrrrgggghhh!

I know, I'm so comforting. *hugs* Hang in there!

[sgtjesse.livejournal.com]

1) A man flies out of town for a business trip. While he is away, someone breaks into his house. If he were home, they wouldn't have broken in.

2) If I add sugar to vinegar, I get the base for a sweet-and-sour sauce. If I add baking soda to vinegar, I get foam. But since I know how to cook, I wouldn't make that mistake in the kitchen.

3) Sometimes people take chances they probably shouldn't. Like spending their entire paycheck on lottery tickets.

4) Gratutitus comment about how booty-licous babes rule.

5) Can protagonists have "do'h" moments?

6) Does the answer to the problem have 'X'?

7) On maps, sometimes several highways that look unrelated actually end up meeting at a nexus, usually a city.

8) Magic helmet?

Okay, that's all I got. Hope it works out.

[morland.livejournal.com]

Consequences and commitment.

Make the baddies have a stroke of genius, knock the goodies off balance hard, and make it gritty?

Oh hell, what do I know anyway.

:o)

[liamgaidin.livejournal.com]

You do the same thing they do in other books and TV shows. The reason they don't do X because it is not in the script, or novel as the case maybe :)

[thegargoyle.livejournal.com]

Protagonists aren't perfect. They have "dumb" moments, too...and it might even be funny if they stop somewhere during the plot, smack their palms to their foreheads and say, "Hey, guys, remember when the damsel got nabbed awhile back, causing us to go on this little trip? I just realized if we had done X, we could have saved all this trouble..."

It makes them more believable...

[(Anonymous)]

hey this is lenny reading over jess's shoulder....I saw this and had a idea. Write in something that makes the protaganist realize if he does X....it will cause more harm....perhaps by X having a side effect that causes more misery to the protaganist or someone they value. after all....Epic storys are made from taking the hard route...make what seems the easy route have enough side effects that the hard route is better in the long run.