OMG.

What to do when you realize your book may be too contrived?

That is, for no apparent reason, your hero or heroine does something stupid, or unexplained?

Don’t freak out! It just happened to us, and the manuscript was finished. At first, I did hit the panic button, but then, we figured, hey. we can make ANYTHING happen we want. WE are the authors!

I went through the plot and IM’d Chantel with my editor’s comments.

The first time our heroine gets in trouble, she sneaks off for no apparent reason, other than to slay the bad guy. Hmmm. Okay My husband said, that seems pretty contrived. So instead, maybe she should get a call from someone she owes big time, asking her for a huge favor. Much better.

Later, our hero says ‘stay put’ and expects her to obey, even though she has shown no signs of following orders throughout the whole of the book. Damn. As my husband editor looked at it, he said our hero seemed a bit naive, here.

So, how to fix it? How about we let her come along with the hero, but insist she stay in the car.  Surely that would be reasonable. Then, if she doesn’t listen, despite the danger, it would be more believable. The husband agreed.

The last ‘fix’, Chantel and I had to discuss on IM. Because of our personal experiences, she trusted a hotel room as safe, and I did not. In the original plot, our hero leaves our heroine alone in a nice hotel, because the bad guy is presumed dead.  In the new, Chantel suggested our hero post a guard at the door, just in case. That was good because I could not think of an easy way out.

These are small changes, but we make our characters more believable!

Want to be a Beta Reader and let me know if it works? Leave a comment!

Good luck with your plot.