6 Steps to Balance Your Editing: Plot vs. Characters

After we’ve finished drafting our story and the warm fuzzies of that accomplishment have faded, it’s time to buckle down for the next step: revising.

Many of us aren’t sure where to start with revisions, even when we know something is wrong with a story. When I help authors edit their books, they sometimes mention the dozens of fix-it ideas they’ve tried, none of which worked.

Usually, the reason those ideas didn’t work is because we can struggle with seeing the underlying issue and knowing what to fix or how to fix it. Do we need to change the plot? The characters? Both?

Too often, I see writers change plot event after plot event and forget to look for problems within the character-related sentences. So let’s take a look at some of the symptoms we’re likely to see in problem areas and identify how we might be able to tell if the issue is plot or character related. *smile*

Step 1: Gather Feedback

This might mean that we pay for an editor, but I recommend not sending first-draft (or even second-draft) material to an editor because that’s an expensive way to go. At the first-draft stage, we’re likely to need a lot of changes, and personally, I’d rather save my money for editing after the low-hanging problems are worked out.

Instead, I recommend establishing beta reading and/or critique partner relationships. If you need to find beta readers, check out this post with the resources I know of for playing matchmaker.

Step 2: Organize Feedback

I like collecting first-round feedback from about three sources. That allows me to know if comments are just differences of opinions (the same line prompting one “I hate it” and two “I love it” comments), or more importantly, whether the feedback falls into patterns (multiple comments pointing out the same issue).

Once we have a couple of sources for feedback, we can organize the information to look for patterns. Follow the instructions in this post to combine all of our readers’ MS Word comments into one document.

Step 3: Identify Plot-Related Feedback

Let’s start with finding the plot-specific issues. Here are some clues to look for when deciding if feedback is pointing out a plot-related issue:

Questioning the How of Events

• • “How did they end up at the same location as the killer?”
  • “So did she get kicked out in that last scene or not?”
  • “Is this supposed to be the next day?”
• Comments along these lines might point out a logic flaw in the plot. Maybe the plot doesn’t flow from one event to the next with linked causes and effects, or maybe we’re missing consequences from an event, or maybe our writing is confusing.
• These comments are almost always plot related.

Questioning the Why of Actions

• • “Why isn’t she waiting for backup?”
  • “Why isn’t he taking his cell phone with him?”
  • “Is she trying to be Too Stupid To Live here?”
• Comments along these lines might point out plot holes, where we forced the characters to do something illogical for the sake of the plot we wanted.
• These comments are often plot related (if they refer to actual plot holes), or they might point out issues with character-related goals, motivations, or stakes, which should be providing context for why those actions aren’t as illogical as they seem.

Questioning the Pacing or Point of Events

• • “What was the point of this scene?”
  • “Why are they arguing? Just for random conflict?”
  • “Bored now.”
• Comments along these lines might point out plot tangents, where we’ve slowed down the narrative drive of the story with pointless events.
• These comments—if focused on events—are often plot related, but many pacing issues are actually caused by issues with character-related goals, motivations, or stakes (or simple over-writing).

Questioning the Under/Over of Reactions

• • “Doesn’t she care that she just lost her job?”
  • “Why is he freaking out about a simple knock on a door?”
  • “Wow, melodramatic much?”
• Comments along these lines might point out mismatches between plot trigger “causes” and the character’s emotional “effects.” Maybe the plot event isn’t big enough to justify the reaction (melodramatic overreaction), or maybe the plot event seems meaningless to the story (character under-reaction).
• These comments—unless the character reaction is already just as we want—are often more character related.

Step 4: Label All Other Issues as Character Related (for now)

We will occasionally have plot tangents, logic flaws, or plot holes, and labeling those as plot related makes sense. However, just as many (if not more) issues in stories are related to unclear, missing, or weak:

• Goals (what the character wants)
• Motivations (why they want it)
• Stakes (the consequences if they fail)

And these are all primarily character-related issues because these elements are how characters provide context for the plot events. If we start mucking about with the plot, any changes won’t help us (and will, in fact, over-complicate the story), so we need to hold off on plot changes for all other issues for now.

Step 5: Identify the Underlying Issue

Ever heard this writing advice? The purpose of plot is to reveal character. That may be less true in some genres or stories, but it’s a good starting place for understanding why plot changes won’t fix many story issues.

Yet many writers will first jump at changing plot events when they suspect an issue. Plot changes might seem easier. They’re not hidden in our story’s narrative or subtext. They’re worded more straightforwardly. They’re tangible.

But skittering from plot possibility to plot possibility can, in fact, distract us from seeing the real issues. In the big picture, plot events are important mostly for acting as triggers to force our characters to make choices, reveal emotions, cause reactions, etc.

So we first need to understand what we’re trying to accomplish in a scene, and then analyze whether it’s really the plot catalyst (“trigger”) that’s wrong, or if the problem is something else (or a combination). From what I’ve seen in my beta-reading and editing experience, the “something else” is almost always a character issue.

Step 6: Fix the Underlying Issue

If the issue is truly plot related, we can adjust the plot events to lead to the results we want. But remember, the only times a plot change alone will fix our story is if:

• there’s a plot hole, plot tangent, or logic flaw
• there’s a mismatch between a plot event “cause” and a character reaction “effect”—and we want to keep the character reaction “as is”
  • For example, if we want the character to freak out, but their reaction currently seems melodramatic, we might need a bigger plot event to justify their reaction.

Otherwise, we should ensure that the Goals, Motivations, and Stakes are clear to readers. If we’re not able to point to a line or paragraph that captures these elements, we can take a look at whether we’re leaving too much in the subtext or if we’re not sharing enough context for readers to understand plot events.

Fixing character-related, contextual elements might mean:

• wording a vague statement more clearly
  • From “She had a feeling this was going to be a bad night” to “If she couldn’t get xyz, this was going to be a bad night.” (clearer stakes)
    
• adding a line of dialogue or internalization
  • “If only she could xyz.” (statement of goal)
• adding emotion and/or reactions
  • “After all the pain he’d caused, there was no way in hell she’d let him get away with xyz.” (statement of motivation)

Major story issues often seem like they’ll need a big overhaul to fix (which might be another reason we default to plot changes), but in reality, major issues might need just a line or two to change the context. Context is all about controlling a reader’s impression by changing what the plot means to the characters.

Often, it’s not the plot event that’s “off.” It’s the context around the plot event that’s causing the problem.

We can change plot events all day long, but if the context is wrong, no amount of plot tweaking will fix the problem. Instead, we need to control the context of plot events by tweaking how the characters make choices, react, and reveal emotions in response to the events.

So before we flail randomly by making oodles of changes to the plot, we first need to look at the role of our characters and their interactions with the plot. Characters are the key to giving the proper context to plot events, and that’s why our editing needs to balance changes to both plot and characters. *smile*

Have you ever made plot changes, only to realize they didn’t fix the problem? Are you able to see the underlying causes for story issues, or do you need others to point them out? Does this concept of tweaking the context of plot events for the characters make sense? Do you have any questions about this process?