today's writing lesson

[swan_tower]

If you're grappling with a problem in your story, and then you think up a solution, and then decide (as you should) that no, that solution is too easy, so you toss in a complication, but you still don't quite know how to make it work . . .

. . . then the answer is in fact to toss in another complication.

Throw plot twists at it until it works¹, sez I.



1 -- Method not advised for all stories. But it works for some.

Comments

[kaz-mahoney.livejournal.com]

Just the advice I need right now... *starts throwing plot twists*

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Sometimes it's just what the doctor ordered.

Even if your characters need a doctor when you're done.

[kaz-mahoney.livejournal.com]

LOL! I just finished a scene where that couldn't be more true...

[lady-jade-01.livejournal.com]

Hmmmmm...that sounds familiar...

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I have read stories I am convinced were built by this method.

[scottakennedy.livejournal.com]

I think there's an old story about Dashiell Hammet writing this way (i.e., "whenever you get stuck, just have someone come through the door holding a gun").