: Re: How to get a derailed book back on track? Before I started writing my fantasy story (80,000 words so far) I had a pretty strong outline prepared. Within the structure of my plot, I wrote

Don't forget that a valuable part of character is tension. People don't "make sense" most of the time, and neither does every character have to. (Recently, I had a grad student friend who's in the country as a refugee from Russia on the basis of his homosexuality ask on social media for a ride to the border to meet his young husband, who was refusing to submit a refugee status claim lest it damage his professional prospects; the call was answered by a gay priest-in-training he had never met before. Talk about a situation making sense -- but how interesting!)

But, of course, the moment you feel you have to "force" something (and not just work hard at it), then, as the other answerers have noted, you should probably listen to your instincts and ensure your characters are doing what feels natural to them, inconsistencies and all. Otherwise it feels contrived, which is a price not worth paying for the sake of plot.

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: You may write a novel. I'm not sure if you can or will though. :) If you do write a novel -- a fiction of an acceptable length to be considered a novel -- no one truly has the authority

@Phylliss352

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: How much and which parts of a manuscript should I submit to an agent? I've got a book that I think is interesting and action packed - a traumatic scene begins right in the prologue, but

@Phylliss352

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: What if my story seems too similar to a particular movie? I'm writing a story about fictional beings who have the power of the four elements. Only very few, very rare people posses the power

@Phylliss352

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: How to stop viewing your story as a film When thinking about scenes and story ideas, I can't help but picture something playing out as a movie. It's so much easier to picture someone moving

: Re: How to get a derailed book back on track? Before I started writing my fantasy story (80,000 words so far) I had a pretty strong outline prepared. Within the structure of my plot, I wrote

More posts by @Phylliss352

: You may write a novel. I'm not sure if you can or will though. :) If you do write a novel -- a fiction of an acceptable length to be considered a novel -- no one truly has the authority

: How much and which parts of a manuscript should I submit to an agent? I've got a book that I think is interesting and action packed - a traumatic scene begins right in the prologue, but

: What if my story seems too similar to a particular movie? I'm writing a story about fictional beings who have the power of the four elements. Only very few, very rare people posses the power

: How to stop viewing your story as a film When thinking about scenes and story ideas, I can't help but picture something playing out as a movie. It's so much easier to picture someone moving

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