There are no limits to where your imagination can take you—so write fearlessly!
Logic justifies emotion. Logic drops in after emotions have flipped the table so it can straighten up the furniture and make coffee. That’s how life works. We like to imagine logic pulls our chariot, and so we prefer stories that seem “natural” and logical—with understandable motivations. These stories help us learn how to construct our own motivations *a posteriori.*
Strategy:
Have you ever been engrossed in a story, only to be jolted out of the experience by a character's inexplicable behavior or a plot twist that seems to come out of nowhere? These jarring moments often stem from a disconnect between the author's intent and the reader's interpretation. You suddenly realize someone else is pulling the strings and making the characters dance. In this exercise, we'll dive into the murky waters of authorial intent and reader interpretation, exploring how to bridge the gap and create stories that resonate with readers on a deep, satisfying level.
Instructions:
Choose Your Poison: Select one of the following issues to explore in your writing: Unclear Motivation, Magical Knowing, Magical Ignorance, Convenient Coincidences, Plot Armor, or Uncanny Fact. See Further Resources section for a description of each.
Set the Stage: Decide on a character and situation that can serve as a perfect example of the issue you've chosen. The more exaggerated and obvious, the better!
Write the Problematic Scene: Craft a scene that showcases the issue in all its glory. Have fun and lean into the problem, making it as apparent as possible. The goal is to create a scene that would make readers scratch their heads in confusion or disbelief.
Minimal Intervention: Brainstorm a small change or addition to the scene that could help alleviate the issue without drastically altering the overall narrative. This could be a line of dialogue, a minor action, or a subtle hint.
Extensive Editing: Consider what larger-scale revisions might be necessary to fully address the issue and create a more cohesive, believable story. This could involve rewriting entire sections, adding new scenes, or rethinking character arcs.
Reflect and Apply (optional): Take a moment to consider whether you've encountered this issue in your own writing or in other stories you've read. What red flags might signal that this problem is present and needs to be addressed?
Tags: storytelling, authorial intent, reader interpretation, revision, editing, characterization, plot, consistency
Category: Story Development > Explore Viewpoints
Example:
Choose Your Poison: Convenient Coincidences
Set the Stage: A spy named Jack is on a mission to infiltrate a high-security building and steal classified documents. He has no gadgets, no plan, and no backup.
Write the Problematic Scene:
Jack crept silently down the dimly lit hallway, his heart pounding in his chest. The soft soles of his shoes allowed him to move with the stealth of a cat, avoiding detection from any security personnel who might be lurking nearby. As he approached the door to the top-secret file room, he noticed the blinking red light of an electronic lock.
Kneeling down, Jack studied the device, his brow furrowed in concentration. It was a state-of-the-art system, far more advanced than anything he had encountered before. He realized with a sinking feeling that his hacking skills were no match for this level of security. He had no way to bypass the lock and gain entry to the room.
Just as despair began to set in, Jack's gaze drifted downward, and he noticed something lying on the floor just a few inches from his feet. It was a keycard, its white plastic surface gleaming under the fluorescent lights. Jack's heart leapt with a sudden surge of hope.
With trembling fingers, he picked up the keycard and held it up to the electronic lock. The device beeped softly, and the red light turned green. The door clicked open, and Jack slipped inside, a grin of triumph spreading across his face. Sometimes, luck was on his side.
Minimal Intervention: Before Jack finds the employee ID badge, add a brief scene where he overhears two employees discussing the company's lax security policies and the frequency with which people lose their badges.
Extensive Editing: Rewrite the scene to have Jack plan his infiltration more methodically. He could spend time observing the building's security routines, create a fake ID badge, and exploit a specific vulnerability in the system to gain access to the file room. The power outage could be orchestrated by a hacker ally, adding another layer to the plan.
Reflect and Apply (optional): Convenient coincidences often appear when the writer is trying to move the plot forward quickly without considering the logical steps needed to make the events plausible. If the story's events seem too easy or lucky for the characters, it might be a sign that more planning and revision are needed.
Further Resources:
This exercise was inspired by an article by FoxPrint Editorial about Magical Knowing. That article is focused more on murky character motivation, but the term “magical knowing” could take on a life of its own. It suggests (to my overly-analytical mind) a similar but slightly different concept. The term magical ignorance comes from the Indy Author Podcast episode where Matty Dalrymple interviews the author of the article, Tiffany Yates Martin.
Unclear Motivation: A character makes a decision or takes an action that seems out of character or lacks sufficient justification within the story's context. This can leave readers confused or unconvinced about the character's behavior, as it doesn't align with their established traits, goals, or circumstances.
Magical Knowing: A character suddenly possesses knowledge or understanding that hasn't been earned or justified through the story's events. This can feel like an authorial intrusion, where the character knows something simply because the plot requires them to, rather than because they've gained the information through logical means.
Magical Ignorance: A character remains unaware of something that is glaringly obvious to the reader, often for the sake of prolonging a mystery or delaying a revelation. This can strain credibility and make the character appear unintelligent or oblivious in a way that feels contrived or frustrating.
Convenient Coincidences: Events or circumstances align too neatly or improbably to serve the story's needs, rather than feeling like natural, logical outcomes. This can involve characters being in the right place at the right time, finding exactly what they need when they need it, or having problems resolve themselves through sheer luck or happenstance.
Plot Armor: A character escapes the logical consequences of their actions, or the story's established rules bend to accommodate their plot-required survival or success. This can manifest as a character emerging unscathed from dangerous situations, facing no repercussions for risky choices, or being granted exceptions to the story's internal logic.
Uncanny Fact: The story includes a detail, event, or circumstance that is factually accurate but feels implausible or unbelievable to readers. This can happen when the truth is stranger than fiction, and the author fails to provide sufficient context or justification to help readers accept the unusual reality being presented. For a funny example of this, check out Hank Green’s video about his Boob in Door experience.