Artwork by Thomas Broome
It's like you're standing in the middle of a room. There's a door on the ceiling, another on the floor. The windows are sideways, the couch doesn't quite fit, and the lamps don't have lightbulbs. Your plot has gone askew. You had a blueprint and you thought you followed it - but somehow things went a little wrong . . .
A friend and writing buddy of mine, Scarlett, messaged me the other day about NaNoWriMo. We both decided to give it a go this year, and she was trying to amend a plot paradox that wasn't cooperating.
Plot Paradox (n.) - A section of a story where the planned outline of the plot and the manifested elements of said plot do not align. In other words, the WIP grew a mind of its own and now the projected ending of story doesn't quite fit.
I knew exactly what Scarlett was talking about because I've been finding those little wormholes throughout my NaNo novel as well. She explained the characters, the previous events, and what was supposed to happen to me and asked if I had any ideas.
The good news is that human (and thus characters') psychology is not a math calculation in terms of what we are capable of. The bad news is that the readers' believability is a tiny target on a dart board you have to hit. Even though the possibilities of reality (or otherwise) may be broader.
In other words, whatever happens in your plot, you have to earn it.
Scarlett found a path through her paradox that, maybe wasn't her ideal for the finished book, but was close enough to bridge the two pieces of her story together (what she's written and where she is trying to write toward).
The perfectionist in me can find it infuriating when I reach a plot paradox. Even though I try to outline in detail, there's always something that slipped through the cracks. I tend to find it in the middle of my story. This makes me want to delete the file and start over. There's too much mess to save what's there, I tell myself. But I've tried that approach in this past, and it just makes for a lot of false starts and few finished pieces.
What I have trouble digesting is that sometimes paradoxes leave room for alternative scenes I would never have otherwise imagined. Sometimes, our mistakes are ways to better understand our story world or characters - or a better perspective for the writing entirely
I'm working on remembering that first drafts are sketches. They're supposed to be messy. They provide the blueprint for you to go back and build out the rooms, paint the walls, and rearrange the furniture of your story's home.
Especially if its your first novel or script, the goal should always be to get the story out. Otherwise, your doubts and frustrations might end up strangling your creativity.
Then, come December (or whenever the draft is finished for those of you not doing NaNo), we shall tackle the slightly askew frame, peeling shingles, and creaky doors with a tool box of revision techniques to make a story that's cozy and inviting for readers.
