My first novel will never be published, largely because the plot does not hold up that much.

This is because I forced my characters to do some really stupid things, all to advance the plot to a particular place I wanted the plot to go, when that place didn’t end up making sense.

A good story needs more than to be believable, but it MUST be believable. Readers will only suspend disbelief to a certain degree.

The actions characters take and the way they respond to events around them must be credible based upon who we know the characters to be, what information they have available to them in making decisions, and basic knowledge of human nature that we all share intuitively.

It’s fine if the idea for a plot point inspires your story, like it did my first failed novel. Please don’t think I’m saying otherwise in this post. Your story won’t necessarily fail if the idea for a particular scene is what gets you excited about writing!

My failure was in not working backward, in the sense of making sure, step by step, that the path I was crafting to that final plot point was solid–the plot point I loved so much that I sacrificed a credible plot.

A credible plot requires characters (assuming they have a basic level of human intelligence) to make relatively sound decisions in striving to achieve their goals unless there is a clear obstacle preventing them from doing that–addiction might be an example. It also requires characters to act from a developed, human personality that is consistent in its flaws, strengths, and hopefully an arc of growth or perhaps failure.

If you find yourself having to explain away a character’s decision, or to force it into place–STOP. Rethink. REALLY consider allowing the character to do something more authentic. Consider where that authentic action might take you.

I have had moments where the decision a character made or something a character said surprised me–but it was utterly genuine and in character. So instead of immediately deleting because it wasn’t anything I’d planned, I moved forward slowly and asked myself, “What does this mean for the next step? The one after that?”

In doing this, I learned where my story had been heading all along. It was way more powerful and way cooler than anything I’d expected.