On Editing III
A while back I saw a meme post wherein someone complained that if a main character made three mistakes in the story the reader was done. The commenters on the post bristled at the suggestion that someone would give up so easily, citing the concept of character development to excuse mistakes. But what those commentators fail to realize is that while, yes, mistakes within stories and atoning for them is a hallmark of character development, the reader should not be aware the character is making mistakes until the story reveals the consequences. What the original poster was really suggesting is he is tired of characters acting out of character just for the author’s plot to meander forward. If an author has to force a character to behave badly for the plot to happen, then the plot will always be tedious and dull. And plot holes happen.
I actually almost had this happen to me this week. To Private Ford Rayburn was meant to be one book that turned into two and now has three more books plotted out. When it was one story with a potential spinoff, I had an idea for the ending. But whilst editing book one, finishing book two, and starting on book three, I noticed that the original ending of book two did not make sense anymore. With all the new content, the characters actions at the end of the book, were ‘mistakes.’ I talked it over with my editor and he agreed, I needed to change the ending, and in changing the ending, I changed the course of the next three books. At which point he confessed something to me, he did not understand the throughline of books 3-5. He essentially did not see the point and suspected they weren’t going to work, and he was right.
Here’s the kicker, I could have left it all the same. What I have plotted out remains almost entirely the same with the one exception that I have a new ending to the whole series. But there were so many pesky scenes that didn’t quite work and plot holes I would have had to eventually bend over backwards to fill. The one change to the ending of book two fixes everything and I now have a renewed vigor to finish book one and two so I can move on to all these exciting new developments. It does mean more work, I did have to rewrite the ending of book two this week. And if I hadn’t done it, no one would have noticed. But if I hadn’t done it, I would be scrambling in a couple of years to deliver the promised novels. Because ultimately, if I hadn’t fixed the characters’ actions and the plot, I would have lost the plot.
The absolute worst part is knowing no one is this thorough when editing. Because why should they be? As demonstrated with the story above, readers today excuse a LOT that they really shouldn’t. And I think I know why. Like the author, they want a specific plot to happen, and they’ll let the story bend and break if it means they get the ending they want, whether it makes sense or not. It’s been happening for decades. I’m on book six of the Deverry Cycle, which came out in the early ‘90s, and that’s a great example of characters acting stupidly to make plot happen and the author losing the story in the process. There’s still ten books to go, but I really don’t know how much longer I’ll keep reading. Normally I would also follow the ‘three mistake’ rule, and I made an exception here because the writing was really good. But no matter how good the writing, without strong characters acting within character, no story will hold up for long.
To be continued…