Have you ever read a book where
a weapon magically appeared in the protagonist’s hands just when he or she
needed it most? That’s okay if the protagonist has been set up as a magician
who can create things out of thin air, but it doesn’t work for ordinary men and
women.
That’s an extreme example, of
course, but less egregious errors abound. A mother goes to the medicine cabinet
and takes out an infrequently prescribed medication that just happens to cure
her son’s rare disease. Or a seemingly frail and defenseless protagonist saves
the day by using karate to disarm the antagonist. These sudden surprises don’t
heighten the tension—they simply lessen the scene’s believability.
If a character is going to use
a particular object or skill at a crucial point in the book, use foreshadowing
to make the scene realistic. Provide a reason for the medication to be in the
medicine cabinet. Show us the protagonist earning her black belt. A few words
may be enough, but they must be there.
One of my plot twists in Creating Esther involves a fire escape
and a canvas bag. When the scene begins, Ishkode grabs the bag and surreptitiously
borrows a key to unlock the door to the fire escape. But how does she know
where the bag and the key are? This knowledge shouldn’t come out of thin air
any more than a weapon should. I solved that problem by providing the answers
in advance.
Accounting for the whereabouts
of the key was easy. I simply added an earlier scene with a fire drill, where
the matron pulls out her key chain and unlocks the door. That scene worked with
the story even standing alone because it showed the conditions at the school. But
I also used it to foreshadow two separate plot twists.
The canvas bag was more of a
problem. I didn’t want Ishkode grabbing a bag that she hadn’t noticed before,
and I didn’t want it suddenly appearing in a convenient place, either. So what
did I do? I threw a brief mention into an earlier chapter. Ishkode is sweeping
a floor when a messenger tells her that a friend is seriously ill and asking
for her. This paragraph follows:
In a rush to leave,
Ishkode threw the broom into the closet and knocked a canvas bag off a shelf.
Not waiting to pick it up, she ran out of the room, then slowed down before
entering the infirmary. Aamoo mustn’t know how worried Ishkode was.
That’s the only mention of the
canvas bag until the scene where it becomes important. The reader will probably
even forget about it in the meantime. But this brief paragraph answers the
question of how Ishkode knew where to find the canvas bag when she needed
something to hold—
No, I won’t tell you what she
put in the bag. That gives away too much of the plot.
If you want to keep your scenes
realistic, plant uncommon objects and skills before you need them.
Your readers will appreciate
it.
__________
The photograph at the head of
this post shows a fire escape at the now abandoned Mount Pleasant Indian
Boarding School. I took the picture last year on my research trip to Ojibwe
country.
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