Beware of Forced Plotting

Over the weekend, I had a run of submissions that ran into this same issue. The author was forcing the plot. Let me explain.

Too often, writers get a great idea for a story. It often revolves around some great character they came up with, or even a small little nugget of a story idea. No problem here. So they start off writing those stories and get to a point that they aren't sure where to turn. The author may have gotten to the end of the story before reaching a word count to make the story marketable. The author may have suddenly realized the conflict was not enough, or the conflict was too easily solved.

So they turn to forcing a new issue into the plot. 

Suddenly the hero has an "unexpected" thing that happens in his life, or surfaces that is so out of the blue. Suddenly the heroine finds out that her long lost brother with terminal cancer needs her.

Sometimes it is an issue that the two main characters really never have a reason to be in the same room with each other, so the author crafts this far-fetched idea, and forces them together. 

There are a couple of solutions to this problem.

The first deals with the story getting finished too quickly. Plot the story out. I know some of you hate this idea, but before you waste too much time on that project, figure out if the story truthfully has enough depth for the story you want it to be. If not, scrap that idea and move on. Don't just create something else to shove in the book to make it reach word count.

The second deals with the characters doing things that seem a bit too out of the blue. Think like your characters. What would a "normal person" really do in a situation such as the one you put them in. Would someone, who just found out their significant other cheated on them, take off and move to some distant, hole-in-the-wall community and start a business they knew nothing of? Probably not. They would simply move on with their life, just a bit angrier and more cautious of who they were dating. 

Your story is what it is. Don't try to turn it into something it isn't.