How did you get out of a corner you backed yourself into?

I have done this more than once, as I do not outline. The positive is that the story seems to grow organically, but the negative, for me at least, is that the plot trap does sometimes pop up. In the end, I feel discarding a scene or sometimes a couple, is worth letting the characters tell you where the story is going, even if they lead you astray on occasion.

Chapter 7, last line:

Bob lay down to sleep on the cardboard box under the overhang, wondering how he would ever find the key that was stolen and, could he save the beautiful girl without it?

Chapter 8, First line:

After recovering the stolen key, Bob set out to rescue the beautiful girl.



Seriously, if it's important to the plot, he loses the key and has another roadblock to overcome on his quest for the perfect ending. If it's not important, then it's a great scene to put in a different book, where it's part of the plot.

Jeff

How to get out of a plot corner? Same as when you turn your car into a cul-de-sac or dead-end road. You back up to the most recent through-street and consider your options from that point.

Also, is "but it's a great scene" worth the story conundrum? Sometimes we have to trash bits of our favorite writing. Determine what is best for the story, even if it means taking that great scene out for now.

In my Third Pulse WIP the main character is that world's version of Superman only not so strong, fast, or invulnerable. His problem is he cannot die (and ge's already died a couple of times and was presumed dead a third). If there's any kind of electromagnetics around he'll eventually come back, but more powerful and slightly "different" than before.

For the first third of the book he's been relearning his abilities after a 5-year period of regaining his memories from a "mind wipe" by a superpowered psychic. In the last third of the first third of the book he confronts his old arch enemy in Golden Gate Park, confident he can handle everything they throw at him. He sends an old partner for help and proceeds to mop the floor with his enemy's army.

So, the problem was, how to keep this guy up a tree and keep throwing rocks at him. The enemy knows he can't literally be stopped permanently. If they kill him he's only going to come back stronger and "different" and they might not be able to handle the new version, army if superpowered individuals or not.

Be he's the good guys general. They have to take him down.

Up to this point the character has also heavily overshadowed the other characters in the book. We know virtually nothing about them.

The solution?

The villains gang up on him and beat him to within an inch of his life - but don't kill him. He's captured, defeated, and in his arch-enemy's hands. His allies are leaderless, lost.

The next third of the book will be about those sidekick characters growing and becoming leaders in their own right in their attempts to rescue their leader and build their own army to oppose the enemy who seems virtually unstoppable without their Superman.

After the second third of the book the going will really get tough.

mrsvalkyrie said:

Arthea--I used an alternate version of your first suggestion (having it traded for.) Since there is unfortunately no Craigslist in the book I threw in a character who needs the MC to get something back for him and in exchange, he will get back what was stolen from the MC (and then a whole other chain of events happens that never could have been created without including this character, so I'd say that couldn't have worked out better!)

Click to expand...

Craigslist comment cracked me up. Would be awesome to have some kind of blackmarket craigslist...

Anyway, so glad it worked out. That sounds like a good fix, because the new character can go on whatever crazy goose chase is necessary to retrieve it without you having to document the journey in the life of your MC (or even in the book at all, depending on how you've written it).

Bravo! ::Claps hands::