I wrote recently about the worst thing you can say about my fiction writing, which would be that I’m letting what I want to happen in the story drive my characters’ actions, rather than my characters’ wants, desires and personality driving what happens in the story. There’s little that frustrates me more in a story than when the author appears to be forcing her characters to behave in a way that seems unnatural in order to move the story forward, and the author doesn’t earn his own plot development.
That got me thinking about a related point for writers, which is to make sure you earn your plot. This especially goes for major twists. What I mean by this is that the reader doesn’t have to see the plot point coming — in fact, obviously, it’s often better if they don’t — but they should be able to look back on the story after a surprising twist and say “Ah, yes. That actually makes a lot of sense.” They’ll only do that if you’ve earned the twist by playing Hansel and Gretel, leaving breadcrumbs for the reader along the way. If the protagonist has to do something that runs totally counter to his character in order for the twist to work, then — Guess what? — the twist doesn’t work. If the twist, or any other plot point, doesn’t follow logically from what happened before it, then it’s your stupid ass that needs to adjust, not your characters.
The man who was once thought of as the master of the movie twist (M. Night Shyamalan) has an example on both sides of this, that most people have seen. Think back to “The Sixth Sense” [What’s the etiquette here? Do I have to give a spoiler alert for a 17-year-old movie that everybody’s seen? If so, damn it, consider this your warning for the rest of this paragraph]. Generally speaking, most people who aren’t humblebragging were totally surprised when they found out Bruce Willis’ character was actually dead throughout the film. But, then, a lot of people went back and re-watched the movie and found out that the clues were there all along. On a second viewing, knowing the twist, it all seemed almost obvious. That was a well-earned twist.
Then there’s “Signs” [Spoiler alert again? Yeah, sure. Why not? If you haven’t seen it and care, skip to the next paragraph]. It’s really not a bad movie for most of the story. Shyamalan does a solid job of building tension, keeping the aliens out of sight while the family tries to steel itself against the growing threat. Then, you actually see the aliens in the house, ready to pounce and kill them. You wonder how they’re going to escape. One of them hits the alien with a baseball bat, and it falls to the ground, knocking over a glass of water, which reacts with the alien’s skin like acid. This lets people know that water will kill them. So, the twist is that these glasses of water the daughter were inexplicably leaving all over the house ended up killing the aliens, who invaded the only known planet that’s 70% water when water is their only Achilles heel. Not only was the “She’s leaving water glasses everywhere” plot point ham handed, but the twist that water kills them just doesn’t follow from what happened before. It’s a twist, but it’s not earned. It feels forced.
So, earn your plot, writers. Drop non-obvious hints. Tease with a character’s actions. Or cause eye rolls from readers everywhere.
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