Plotting Against You

Do you ever find yourself in the midst of writing a story and you suddenly realise that you're going down the really obvious route?

Never happened to you? Or happens all the time?

Personally, it happens all the time, to me. I often have to sit there and second guess my need to travel that route. Most of the time, with just one or two small re-writes, you can go the non-obvious track, without having to re-do your entire manuscript. Sometimes you don't even have to re-write anything, because it's a simple matter of revealing the "surprise" and then explaining it in a way that absolutely makes sense.

I've done this twice, in a book I was editing recently. It's not a Simply Sexy Reads book, but one for teens. I had a bad guy about to be revealed and just as I was about to reveal their name, at the moment then the teens finally found out who was causing all the trouble, I stopped and realised it was far too obvious. I'd written the entire book, building up to the reveal of this certain character - let's call them Character A for now - as the bad guy. But then, as I was about to write the name, I realised that I wanted to make it a shock. That I wanted to go really out there and choose someone who the reader would never expect, Character B. Character A could be the decoy; the one so obvious that it would make absolutely no sense for them to really be the bad guy. But, when the revelation that it's really Character B comes out, it's a shock factor and the reader begins to wonder how they never saw it coming.

That's a much better way to go.

I did the same thing with a romance, in the same book. I'd had the set up practically perfect - the two characters (C and D) became best friends through book 1 and 2, then had hints of getting really close in book 2, before finally revealing in book 3 that they were a couple. UNTIL I realised that they didn't fit, at all. Character C was way too innocent and non-romantic for Character D, who was a real romantic and a little too feisty for C. So, I switched it up in book 3, revealing the shocking surprise that Character D was actually going to end up with Character E, who was Character C's twin!

Most of the time, I'd say that it's perfectly fine to follow the plot where you'd always planned to take it. But not in this case. Sometimes, when it's really obvious, you have to switch it up, to offer your readers something that they didn't see coming. In the end, it might not work. But you'll have tried it and you can know that the obvious route was the right one.

Or, it will be fantastic! My two changes read so much better, now that they're not at all obvious. What will readers think? Who knows. Maybe they'll have seen it coming, maybe they won't, but I'll know that it was the route less travelled, when plotting out my story.

The biggest tip here is to listen to your characters. The romantic love interest changed, because my characters were telling me it wasn't right. And some instinct, whether plot or character driven, made me stop and second guess writing that 'bad guy's' name down, while writing the big revelation scene.

Don't be afraid to change your mind and don't be scared of scrapping an entire chapter or two, if it makes your story better. In the end, you'll know what works and what doesn't, when you read your story like a reader. That's when I do my best editing. Get away from it for a while, come back fresh, and you'll see whether your changes work or not.

Either way, you'll have taken the risk of finding out.