It’s no coincidence your story sucks.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009


Hero – check.
Heroine – check.
Set up – check.
Ooooo, ideas for hot lovescene – check and check…mate!

Plot? – erm, yeah, sure. That is, I mean… there’s a framework within which stuff happens. ::coughcough::

Goal, Motivation, Conflict? – What, tragic back-story doesn’t count? How complicated does this have to be?

Very.

At least more than that rickety construction you have going at the moment.

If you’re relying on coincidence to pull your story together, from the first meet to the turning points, to the rising conflict and the final dénouement? You can rest assued that chance plays no part in your story sucking like a toothless asthmatic whore giving bjs at a glory-hole.

Ask yourself : why? (no, not why Ms Glory-hole, isn't sucking on her inhaler instead) But, why are those characters there in that particular scene? I mean, really, Why? Not surface happenstance, but depth of purpose. What do they want? How does this complicate things? How does it move the story forward?

I had a couple of coincidences in the beginning of the current wip. They were flimsy things. Not trustworthy enough to blow your nose in. But they did perform a type of basting stitch that joined one scene to the next.

What I needed was a backstitch. I needed something stronger to replace the coincidences. A commonality that also put the protagonists in opposition. Something that made the story feel more driven and the characters more purposeful. I think a found it.

Now to find the energy to write it.
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2 comments:

azteclady said...

erm... good luck?










[completely off topic: the captcha word is "hypnour"--and now I'm wondering, hypno your what????]

vanessa jaye said...

lol. Thanks AL.

I've already accepted that work is going to own my butt for the next couple of months at least, not only because of the training/steep learning curve, but because it also involves some very BIG projects for the company. (Nothing like added stress to spice up one's life. *g* )

The writing is not going too badly during the 20 min morning commute into work, as long as I get a seat.

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