How to Write a Good Story

Fixing Common Plot Problems (II)

3. ONE OF MY CHARACTERS IS STARTING TO SEEM LACKLUSTER.

Sometimes you get too careful with a character, especially if you've based her on yourself or a close friend or relative. If this seems to be the case, consider adding weirdness.

10-MINUTE SOLUTION: Give her an obsession.

Obsessions are great because they're simple to drop into a character's personality, and you can use them repeatedly to spice up your plot.

Think what you can do! Give a ghetto hooker a fixation on growing the perfect eggplant in her window box, turn the commander of a space station into an incurable pack rat, bestow upon your straight-A prom queen a fascination with arson, twist a fat, old cop into a joyful, compulsive transvestite.

An obsession gives a character a sort of schizophrenic point of view that can be used for comic relief, extra conflict, inner turmoil or all three: The space station commander must run a tight ship yet, gosh, there's that beautiful cobalt-blue screw-top from yesterday's meal that would fit perfectly in the crevice next to his sleeping station, provided nobody has to slide open the adjacent compartment with the emergency appendectomy kit, which happens to be crammed with the lucky bingo charms he inherited from his aunt and smuggled aboard on launch day because the sight of them calms him down when he's upset.

An added bonus to this strategy: It's fun.

4. I HAVE TO COMMUNICATE A LOT OF INFORMATION, AND IT'S OVERKILL.

You're at a turning point in your novel, and you've got one character revealing information to another, or making connections in his head as the puzzle pieces fall into place. Or your omniscient narrator is explaining a lot of stuff to the reader. And it doesn't feel natural.

10-MINUTE SOLUTION: Turn narrative into dialogue.

Don't underestimate the modern reader's ability to infer, generalize and make connections. A professional's first instinct is to cut exposition, but when you've sliced away all but the essential and you're still looking at an awkward block of text, turn it into dialogue.

Scope around for a handy character for the first one to talk to. Then, give the two some back-and-forth, something to disagree about. Create a little conflict while delivering your basic facts. Or, if your character is alone, make him have an internal argument, as in this example:

I ought to confront Otto with what I know about

Tim's death.Wait a minute, shouldn't this be a matter for

the police?

To hell with the police! They don't know he worked

for the bank five years ago. Plus-

Don't get upset. Stay cool.

I'm cool, OK. I just want him to know I'm onto him,

and if he tries anything with Selma or Johnny, I'll be in

his face.

This technique has served me well in several of my books. (I stole the method after seeing Erica Jong employ it so well in Fear of Flying. Of course, she probably ripped it off from Shakespeare-all those soliloquies ...)

5. I DON'T KNOW WHAT SHOULD COME NEXT.

You're writing something new; perhaps you even have a rough outline. You're galloping along, happy and breathless, and you finally bring a scene or chapter to a satisfying conclusion. Then you get that uh-oh feeling.

10-MINUTE SOLUTION: Have a 10-minute brainstorm.

I actually feel great in this situation: I love to brainstorm, and I know I'm about to have ideas I've never had before.

Flip to a fresh page in your notebook or computer notepad, check the time and give yourself 10 minutes to write down anything and everything that might come next. Record every idea that comes to you, even if it seems ridiculous or awful. Keep going. If you do this with a feeling of open exploration, you will come up with a good idea of what should come next.

I once had a student challenge this technique, saying, "It's all well and good to just vomit out everything you can. But how am I supposed to get from vomit to good writing?"

The answer is a paradox: The more honestly and thoroughly you brainstorm, the sooner your material will sort itself out. The chaff will be obvious-and there will be wheat.

Have confidence that as a writer, you are by nature a bit of a mystic. We take the creative journey others fear to take, and we return with something no one's ever seen before. You can't force it, but when you shift into a place of non-judging receptivity, you'll be amazed at what you get.

P.S.

Have any of you ever faced one of these challenges when you're writing a book? And what happened? Thanks for reading and commenting :D