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The importance of a timeline and plot points in fiction writing
Do the PLOT POINTS (that’s “writer-speak”) in your novel make sense?
The last thing you want is for your reader to throw your book down in disgust and declare, “That is so stupid! That would never happen!”
How many times have you heard or read that if you come home and find your door ajar, you should NOT ENTER, but immediately leave and call the police?
Yet in so many television dramas I see the main character walk right in — albeit with caution — while in my head I’m screaming, “That’s STUPID! Don’t do that!”
To me, that is cliché action and borderline “would never happen.”
Even if you write sci-fi or horror, actions in your story must make sense. It is this sense of “normal” that pulls your reader in emotionally. Stephen King is a master of this.
Look at each event in your story and ask yourself: Does it make sense that after “this” happened, my character does “that”?
Think of the concept of CAUSE AND EFFECT. For every action there is a reaction. For example, the inciting incident is the cause that affects the rest of the story.
Does your character’s BACK STORY (there’s that writer-speak again) support their…
