The Plot Thickens

The Plot Thickens

My Rating: four-stars

Pages: 218

As a literary agent, Noah Lukeman hears thousands of book pitches a year. Often the stories sound great in concept, but never live up to their potential on the page. Lukeman shows beginning and advanced writers how to implement the fundamentals of successful plot development, such as character building and heightened suspense and conflict. Writers will find it impossible to walk away from this invaluable guide---a veritable fiction-writing workshop---without boundless new ideas.

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It took me quite a while to get through Lukeman’s The Plot Thickens because a lot of what he writes has been covered in other writing how-to books I’ve read. The Plot Thickens will benefit new novelists, writers facing writing block, and anyone who is in the outline stage of the writing process.

While the book is about plot, there is a lot of discussion on characterization. Lukeman believes that plot stems naturally from characters.

One thing that had me gritting my teeth was the aggressive nature of the author and, also, the tendency to state the obvious…

“Take a suspenseful scene and make it twice the length… if it is one page, make it two. Two pages, make it four.”  (page 144)

Um, yeah. I get it. One doubled is two. Two doubled is four. I remember reading in another book on writing that writers should “RUE: Resist the Urge to Explain.” In other words, don’t treat your readers like they know nothing. Most are very capable of following along with the most complex plot (if it’s written well). That concept applies to Lukeman’s book. There were many areas where I felt like the author was spoon-feeding me when I was more than capable of eating and digesting the information myself.

The author asks the reader a number of questions throughout the book. I found them quite helpful. He forced me to look at the layers of my characters. By doing this, I was able to see quite easily which characters were the dreaded cardboard cut-outs just taking up space. Those characters that don’t add anything to the story except words. Using Lukeman’s questions, it became clear which characters needed more development, and where.

I don’t think this will be a book I’ll use as a reference, going back to it again and again. Although some of the lists the author included are helpful and I’m sure I’ll use them more than once. I do feel the book was worth my time and money.

“Great writers are desperate. For them, every sentence is a matter of life or death…”  -Lukeman

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Michelle

I'm an award-winning YA and NA author... but, really? I'm the wife of an amazing man, mom of four awesome kids, a reader of words, and writer of stories. I love candles and books, think garden gnomes are creepy and M&Ms are the perfect food (especially peanut butter). I live and write in Texas, but was raised in Flint, Michigan and will always think of the Great Lakes state as home.

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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• Writing Craft Books