Kevin Wade Johnson
2023
Plausibility One of the things that kept me from writing a novel for a very long time was this nagging feeling that my plots were fake. Let me give you an example that isn't mine: nine people taking on an entire realm, a powerful and prepared one, and bringing it down. Not exactly realistic, right? Well, when you consider that's The Lord of the Rings in a nutshell…maybe so. Except not. I mean, really, think about it: Gandalf can only do so much, Aragorn's special sword is broken, Gimli and Legolas are from races that don't get along, Boromir is almost as flawed as Aragorn's sword, and the other four are runts. And they're going to take on The Dark Lord, Ringwraiths, trolls, and hordes of orcs? Not to mention the balrog? C'mon. Now, I will note that, in any impossible situation, it really helps to have the author on your side. (How tempting to write a humor piece from Sauron's point of view, as a bunch of half-pints take down his millennia-laid plans.) But, anyway, I'm hoping I can help you to avoid falling into the same trap I did. See, I was simply focused on whether my story was realistic. Wrong. Bad idea. Throw it in the Cracks of Doom. I should have been focused on whether it was plausible. A truly realistic story is going to have ordinary people doing ordinary things, and will be indistinguishable from real life, meaning anyone buying it is a simp for spending time and money on something that they can just live out for free. Now, a good novel gives insights into humanity and people's psyches, which isn't the most ordinary thing, and it can be in a very real setting. But that's straying from our thesis. The setting, plot, and so on don't have to be realistic, they merely have to be believable and believed in. So, don't make your protagonists impossibly good or lucky or anything, and likewise your antagonists. Don't rely on coincidence and serendipity for your plotting. Don't make the setting too fantastic or unlikely. Build your way up from the ordinary to the e
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