Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Tip for March 10, 2010; Roadblocks

Roadblocks. It's something that messes me up all the time.


Roadblocks are basically things that mess up a novel. There are (in my opinion) two major kinds of roadblocks; Plot Roadblocks and Slow Plot Roadblocks. I'll be focusing on Plot Roadblocks today. (See this post to find out about Slow Plot Roadblocks)

Plot Roadblocks are mistakes in the plot where you can't seem to fit in something important. An example would be from my writing yesterday.

I wanted my character to be able to get something he needed (A special sword, actually), but at the moment he was in the middle of a forest fire, and in order for me to fit that scene in, he needed to have a lengthy ceremony in a city just about on the other side of the country. See the problem? I knew that once he was out of the forest fire, he would be able to safely travel to that city. But I had been planning on -and counting on- being able to move into part two (it was one year later) of the novel as soon as he had escaped the forest fire. In order for me to fit that scene in, I'd have to write a long, boring section of the story that I was unwilling to do.

Now, pause. This is where the solution comes in.


There is almost NO problem that can be solved with a little thinking. Just think your dilemma over, and then find a solution. If you can't, well... then you might have to drastically modify the plot.

Here's how I solved my problem.

I thought it over while in bed that night (which is a great place for peace and quiet). And finally, around 11:30, I struck on gold- or rather, a solution.

I went straight to my computer the next day (that is, today), and it worked out wonderfully. Do you want to know what the solution was?

It was simply this; I closed part one as planned, and I added the scene in as something my character remembered. Perfect. And no drastic modifications.

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