100 Things You Should Know About Writing (Part 1)

24) Internal Logic

Before, I've explained why hooking a reader and keeping him/her hooked is just as important to maintaining tension as the plot, the conflict, the stakes, etc. If the reader doesn't care some way or another about what happens, the tension is gone. 

You have an advantage, though. When the reader has read your blurb and decided to give your story a try, they already want to care. This means that the information released in the story--be it description, exposition or action--needs focus on two things: To help the reader to care and to keep the reader immersed in the story and the world of your creation. 

In Section 10, I explained the concept of Hey Wait moments. These happen whenever something about the information transmitted no longer makes sense. I've explained some examples of those. Like characters suddenly appearing where they weren't, or doing simultaneous actions that would in fact be impossible. 

Hey Wait moments have a big brother called the Logic Flaw. 

Logic Flaws are events, action, motivations, or any other types of information that senselessly contradict the expectations created by the writer within the reader. Most often, this is caused when a writer wants something specific to happen in a story. They then bend and or break their own story, characterization, and/or world rules in order to make it be so. The result is that a writer reveals themselves in the story, which should never happen. 

The reason? The reader's not reading to see you. The reader wants to read a story. Revealing yourself in it would be equivalent to Joss Weadon stepping into the scene of the Avengers and telling the actors how to act. The moment the reader sees you, their suspension of disbelief is shattered and you're done. The reader's no longer drawn into the story. They no longer care what happens. Tension dissolves into thin air and they will close your book.  

Therefore it's vitally important that your story has internal logic as its foundation. Internal logic means that every plot or character element within the story grows logically and naturally out of what has been revealed before. If you want a character to do something, make sure it's the natural thing for the character to do. If it isn't natural, go find the more believable thing to happen and write that instead. Never. I repeat. NEVER force something to happen because it's something you want. If you want that specific thing to happen more than anything else, you need to change the character or circumstances so that particular thing is the natural one. It's not going to work otherwise. 

The examples of this is as numerous as the things that writers want in a story above all else, but let me list my pet peeves. 

1) When the writer forces a plot point. 

Since I know this story has a huge following of fans, I'm not naming names. But there was once a series that was hugely popular, and someone had let slip that the author was going to kill the main character. 

The news sent waves through the world and even some luminaries of the literary world weighed in that the main character had to live. The author said something along the lines of "Yeah, but this is the best ending because it's the only one that makes total and complete sense." 

People continued to insist, though, and this author caved. The main character lived. But even after what I assume would be hundreds of edits to blend the change in, I could upon first reading spot the places where it had been forced to fit. 

Honestly, I don't blame the writer. I can't imagine the amount of pressure it took to make the writer cave, but it wasn't a small amount. However, I agree with her first opinion: Changing the ending weakened the entire book's impact. Maybe even the entire series.