Plot ,
The biggest plotting mistake writers make… and how to avoid it
By Laura Starkey
Do I have your attention? Did that click-baity title work?
I hope so, because (I flatter myself) the tips I’m about to share are really, genuinely important if you want to write a book that resonates with the people who pick it up.
Best ever advice
The advice that changed my approach to writing – and which I came across at random on the internet – is this:
A story isn’t about what happens; it’s about how what happens changes the people in the story.
Apologies to all of you who’ve got thirty-point plot plans full of dragon battles or gruesome serial killings prepared – but those twisty, turny events you’ve dreamt up aren’t as important as you think they are. At least, they won’t be if you don’t make sure they mean something.
Character arcs – emotional journeys – are the beating heart of every story: the pulse that keeps readers turning the page. If you don’t tie some sort of character development to every dramatic scene you craft, what you’ll be left with is a sequence of ‘and then’ events that no-one really cares about.
Here, I’m going to offer my top tips for creating characters that will inspire readers to invest in them. I’ll also outline ways you can tie their progress to the external goings-on in your fictional world, ensuring that the big set-pieces you’ve imagined don’t fall flat.
Characters don’t have to be likeable… but we need to understand them
I write commercial women’s fiction: romantic comedies where readers expect to find a protagonist they can root for. This doesn’t mean I have to write fault-free characters, though – and if you’re working in another genre, your scope for crafting someone dark and damaged is even greater.
However sympathetic (or not) you intend your main character to be, there must be credible reasons why they are the way they are. In other words: what’s their backstory?
You don’t have to know what they got for their fifth birthday or their favourite flavour of pizza, but you do need to know how they got to where they are at the opening of your novel – both literally and metaphorically.
Think about Mick Herron’s Jackson Lamb: a deeply unpleasant, uncaring alcoholic, washed up on the scrapheap that is Slough House. Not the deadbeat he at first appears, he remains a skilled agent whose instincts are sharp under pressure – but he’s drowning in cynicism (as well as Scotch) thanks to the deep emotional damage wrought by years of MI5 double-dealing.
Characters need to have problems
And lots of them! If everything is tickety-boo at the start of your story, there’s nowhere for your protagonist to go.
You don’t need your characters to be miserable, but you might want to show them discontented, frustrated, stuck in a situation that’s stifling them or in denial about the past. Whatever is troubling them, it should be connected to their backstory.
Your book’s inciting incident or catalyst is your first opportunity to link your plot (the ‘external conflict’ of your story) – to your character’s issues (the ‘inner conflict’). Make sure that whatever happens here deepens the challenge they’re already facing. In Jane Austen’s Persuasion, the temporary loss of her family home is bad enough for Anne Elliot – but it also sees her thrown back into the orbit of her lost love, Captain Wentworth.
Consider wants vs. needs
All of this said… your characters don’t need to recognise the pickles they’re in to begin with. In fact, it’s best if what they want – the thing they’re striving for as your book opens – has nothing to do with what they actually need.
For instance, your protagonist may be working towards a promotion, or to earn their family’s respect. Perhaps they’re desperate to win back an ex-partner or plotting revenge on an enemy. External goals like these, even if they’re achieved, shouldn’t fix the inner conflict characters are ignoring: the trauma rooted in childhood or the pain of their first love deserting them.
The job of your plot is to guide your character into confronting what’s really going on below the surface. That’s a process of realisation that should take in a variety of highs and lows along the way.
Marry external events to internal reactions
If you’ve outlined the main events in your book, you’ve probably got a list of key scenes you want to include. These will become true story beats when they’re clearly tied to their effect on your characters.
How do the events of your novel trouble or challenge your protagonist? How does each incident affect them specifically? Why is something worse for them than it would be for an average person? Personalise everything to raises the stakes for readers and make every plot point matter more.
This is the difference between a man being involved in a train crash, and him being involved while trying to get home to his dying wife so he can say goodbye to her. A powerful combination of event + emotion is always what you’re aiming for.
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By Laura Starkey
About the author
Laura Starkey is part of the Marketing team at Jericho Writers. She lives in a small village in the West Midlands with her family, her constantly expanding book collection and a mini menagerie of pets. A former teacher, copywriter and digital content designer, she is the author of four romantic comedies including Love Off Script and The Spare Room, which was a top 10 Amazon bestseller in both the UK and Australia in 2024.