{"id":200,"date":"2013-04-25T17:20:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-25T17:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/blog\/2013\/04\/25\/thursdays-tips-complications\/"},"modified":"2015-11-25T12:23:15","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T19:23:15","slug":"thursdays-tips-complications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/thursdays-tips-complications\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday’s Tips: Complications"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nIn everyday life, people normally strive for as few
\ncomplications as possible. We plan ahead. We prepare. We come up with menus and
\ngrocery lists, and wash soccer uniforms for Saturday\u2019s game. We even worry, as
\nif considering all the negative scenarios will help us avoid them. And life is
\neasier when we\u2019re organized. We won\u2019t run out of pasta on lemon chicken
\nlinguini night. Of course, we might be out of lemon. To use a clich\u00e9, life
\ndoesn\u2019t go always as planned.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nYour character may worry and plan, too, or maybe not. Either
\nway, in order to keep us reading, there have to be complications for your
\ncharacter. Don\u2019t let her life go smoothly. Complicate her plans, her day, her
\nlife, her obstacles. <\/div>\n
\n  <\/div>\n
\nOne of the ways to avoid a sagging middle (Act II) of your
\nstory, is to layer in complications\u2014both in terms of characterization and plot.
\nMaybe your character faces a new scenario she\u2019s never planned for. She doesn\u2019t
\nknow how to handle it, or perhaps the situation triggers something in her she
\ndidn\u2019t expect. Complications. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nYou may have heard that it\u2019s best to keep tripping your
\ncharacter up and then kick him when he’s down. The advantage to that is
\nthat when things finally do turn around, the emotional payoff is intense.
\nHowever, this technique is also somewhat transparent and can wear on readers. They\u2019d
\nlike to see some victories, or the story may depress them. It\u2019s best to have a
\nbalance, without making things too easy on your characters. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nI read a lot, for Pelican, of course, but elsewhere too. One
\nelement I\u2019ve seen over and over is writers keeping things safe, both for their
\ncharacters and themselves. No situation is ever out of control. No barraging
\ncircumstances. No unresolved tension. But tension is a reader\u2019s favorite hook. And
\nthe complication of barraging circumstances, the chaos of complications, not
\nonly feels like real life, but also keeps stories from sagging.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nHave you ever tried to train a puppy to \u201cheel?\u201d \u201cHeel\u201d is
\nthe command for walking beside the master\/owner while on a leash. This command demands the dog not pull on the lead, but rather remain in step. And though temptations to sniff the
\nsurrounding area come, once trained, the dog remains faithfully next to the owner. Just like with every other lesson, puppies need training in this. When
\nyou first put a puppy on a leash, he\u2019ll twist his head to bite on it. He\u2019ll
\nscamper around in circles, trying to either get the leash off or get it into
\nhis mouths. He might stop everything, sit down, and use a hind paw to
\nscratch at the collar and leash. If the owner tries walking (all the while
\ngiving the command to \u201cheel\u201d), the puppy may put the brakes on, dig her feet
\ninto the ground, and try to remain where she is. All manner of distractions
\nkeep her from cooperating. The same should be true in our stories.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nAll manner of complications should keep our heroes and
\nheroines from their goals. That keeps readers hooked, or on the leash to remain
\nwith our metaphor. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nSo, what about your work-in-progress? You\u2019ll know if you
\nhave a balance by instinct. If the scene lacks life, consider layering in
\ncomplications. The same is true if your scene lacks realism. Let complications
\nthicken your novel. The goal is to keep your reader on the leash all the way
\nthrough to the end. And, unlike in real life, in story, complications are desirable. <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In everyday life, people normally strive for as few complications as possible. We plan ahead. We prepare. We come up with menus and grocery lists, and wash soccer uniforms for Saturday\u2019s game. We even worry, as if considering all the negative scenarios will help us avoid them. And life is easier when we\u2019re organized. We […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[504],"tags":[135,172,139,104],"class_list":["post-200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editing-writing-advice","tag-editors-tips","tag-hooks","tag-layering","tag-plotting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}