Writing Problem: The Novel Suffers From Arbitrary Complexity
Problem: The Novel Suffers From Arbitrary Complexity
Solution: More spectacle isn't always better. Larger and relentlessly diverse casts aren't necessarily more dynamic or more representative. More gore doesn't exactly make the violence more believable. More tears won't always pull readers into a deeper emotional connection.
Balance in everything, whether in drawing lots for which characters live or die, or assembling the combination of goals and threats the cast must surmount to reach the end.
Sometimes, it helps to weave from the simple toward the complex: If you understand what is essential to the story, and the role of each character in the story, then you can expand outward, deliberately, and unfold more detail from a central theme or narrative device. (If the author does it the other way around, and weaves from the complex toward the simple, then plot holes form, characters lose their purpose, and the story's conclusion feels less and less tethered to the inciting incident that supposedly pulled in readers at the outset.)
Writing Resources:
5 Ways to Make Mundane Scene More Interesting (Writing Questions Answered)
Feeling Overwhelmed by Plot Points (Writing Questions Answered)
What Is Prewriting? Preparing to Write With Purpose (Now Novel)
How to Write the Perfect Plot (in Two Easy Steps) (Helping Writers Become Authors)
Writing Description: Encourage Readers to Infer More Than They Realize (ahbwrites)
Reasons to Kill Your Characters (Coffee Bean Writing)
How to Absolutely Wreck Your Audience With a Character Death (lunewell)
Coming Up With a Plot (From Scratch) (September C. Fawkes)
❯ ❯ Adapted from the writing masterpost series: 19 Things That Are Wrong With Your Novel (and How to Fix Them)
