9 Plot Mistakes Every New Fantasy Writer Makes

Summary

In this video, a seasoned fantasy writer-editor identifies nine common plot pitfalls that can undermine a novel's structure, leading to a lack of suspense, repetitive scenes, and passive protagonists. The speaker shares insights and solutions, such as avoiding early antagonist defeat, diversifying scene formats, ensuring active character choices, maintaining a clear through line, and preventing a 'soggy middle.' The summary also addresses the importance of consequences, aligning the story's promise, progress, and payoff, compressing plot resolutions for a stronger climax, and avoiding reliance on luck to resolve conflicts, providing a comprehensive guide for aspiring fantasy authors to craft compelling narratives.

Takeaways

• 😀 The first mistake new fantasy writers make is defeating the antagonist too early in the story, which diminishes suspense and character growth.
• 🔍 The second mistake is using repetitive scene formats, which can lead to a lack of variation and engagement for the reader.
• 🏃‍♂️ The third mistake is having a passive protagonist, where the story happens to them rather than them driving the story forward.
• 🧵 The fourth mistake is lacking a consistent through line, which can result in a meandering and purposeless plot.
• 🌊 The fifth mistake is a 'soggy middle,' where the middle of the story lacks progression, leading to a slow and boring pace.
• 🔄 The sixth mistake is weak consequences for character failures, which hinders character growth and reader connection.
• 🤝 The seventh mistake is misalignment of the 'three P's': promise, progress, and payoff, which can disrupt the story's natural flow.
• 🔚 The eighth mistake is 'Patriot endings,' where multiple plot threads are resolved separately, leading to a drawn-out conclusion.
• 🚫 The ninth mistake is relying on luck to help the protagonist, which can feel unsatisfying and like cheating to the reader.
• 📘 Outlining is a crucial tool for avoiding these plot mistakes and ensuring a structurally sound first draft that requires minimal editing later.

Q & A

What common plot mistake does the script mention that new fantasy writers often make with their antagonists?

The script mentions that new fantasy writers often make the mistake of beating the antagonist too early in the story, which can diminish the suspense and threat throughout the rest of the narrative.

What is a 'scene format' according to the script, and why is it important to vary them?

A 'scene format' is a structural archetype that defines the prime memory action taking place in a particular unit of the story. Varying scene formats is important to keep the readers engaged and to ensure the conflict in the story is always shifting, forcing characters to adapt and overcome new challenges.

Why is having a passive protagonist considered a mistake in storytelling?

A passive protagonist is considered a mistake because it means the story happens to them rather than because of them. This can lead to a lack of interest, as the character's inaction can make the plot feel stagnant and uneventful.

What is a 'through line' in a story, and why is it crucial for the narrative?

A 'through line' is the core conflict that runs through the story, essentially the one-sentence summary of the book. It's crucial because it provides a consistent source of conflict and challenge, preventing the story from meandering and ensuring that there is a clear direction and purpose.

What is the 'soggy middle' and how can it be avoided?

The 'soggy middle' refers to the middle part of a story that lacks progression and purpose, feeling slow and boring. It can be avoided by using a more structured approach, such as the seven-point plot structure, which provides more anchoring scenes and a better guide for maintaining excitement, development, conflict, and tension.

What is the three-act structure and what are its main issues according to the script?

The three-act structure is a traditional narrative framework that divides a story into three parts: the first act (exposition and inciting action), the second act (rising action and turning point), and the third act (climax and ending). The script points out that the main issue with this structure is the long middle part, which can lead to a 'soggy middle' if not properly managed.

What is the seven-point plot structure and how does it help to avoid the 'soggy middle'?

The seven-point plot structure is an alternative to the traditional three-act structure that provides more specific plot points and a better guide for maintaining narrative tension and excitement. It includes the opening hook, plot term 1, pinch point 1, midpoint, pinch point 2, plot turn 2, and the resolution, ensuring constant development and conflict throughout the story.

Why is it a mistake for new fantasy writers to avoid punishing their characters for failure?

Avoiding punishment for failure is a mistake because it prevents characters from facing adversity, which is crucial for character growth and development. The depth of adversity directly corresponds to the depth of character that can be revealed, affecting the reader's sympathy and connection to the characters.

What are the 'three P's' of storytelling and why is their alignment important?

The 'three P's' of storytelling are Promise, Progress, and Payoff. Their alignment is important because it ensures a logical flow from beginning to end, where each scene naturally leads into the next, preventing the reader from feeling cheated and maintaining the narrative's momentum.

What is the issue with 'Patriot endings' and how can they be improved?

A 'Patriot ending' is when the story's ending drags on, resolving plot threads gradually over several chapters, leading to a sense of the story petering out. This can be improved by compressing the resolution of plot threads into a single moment, creating a more dramatic and satisfying climax.

Why is relying on luck to help the protagonist considered a poor storytelling choice?

Relying on luck to help the protagonist is considered poor storytelling because it can feel unsatisfying and like the writer is cheating. It's more satisfying and believable when luck helps the antagonist, creating a sense of peril for the main character and advancing the story in a more compelling way.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Common Plot Mistakes in Fantasy Writing

The paragraph discusses the common plot mistakes that new fantasy writers make, which can ruin their stories. The speaker, an experienced fantasy writer and editor, highlights nine recurring errors they've noticed in the novels they've edited. The first mistake mentioned is defeating the antagonist too early in the story, which diminishes suspense and character growth. The speaker suggests making the protagonist an underdog to avoid this issue. Additionally, the paragraph touches on the importance of avoiding repetitive scene formats to maintain reader engagement and ensure the conflict shifts, forcing characters to adapt and overcome new challenges.

05:01

🔍 Identifying and Correcting Structural Flaws in Fantasy Writing

This paragraph delves into the importance of having a consistent through line in a fantasy novel, which is the core conflict that runs throughout the story. The speaker explains that without a clear through line, a story can become meandering and pointless, leading to reader disinterest. They also discuss the problem of passive protagonists, where the story happens to them rather than because of them. To avoid these issues, the speaker recommends outlining as a tool for ensuring structural integrity and engaging the reader. The paragraph also touches on the 'soggy middle' syndrome, where the middle of the story lacks progression and purpose, and suggests the seven-point plot structure as a solution to maintain excitement and tension.

10:02

🎯 Enhancing Story Structure and Character Development

The speaker introduces the seven-point plot structure as a method to avoid the 'soggy middle' and ensure a well-paced narrative. This structure includes the opening hook, plot terms, pinch points, the midpoint, and the climax, leading to a satisfying resolution. They also promote their six-week fantasy outlining boot camp, which aims to teach writers how to create comprehensive outlines that cover story structure, character arcs, themes, world-building, suspense, and pacing. The boot camp is designed to help writers avoid common plot mistakes and produce successful novels.

15:05

💥 Crafting Compelling Conflicts and Resolutions in Fantasy Stories

In this paragraph, the speaker addresses several additional common mistakes in fantasy writing. They discuss the importance of imposing strong consequences on characters to drive growth and depth, aligning the promise, progress, and payoff of the story to create a logical flow, and avoiding prolonged endings that can diminish narrative drive. The speaker also warns against relying on luck to resolve conflicts for the protagonist, suggesting that it can feel unsatisfying and like cheating. Instead, they propose that luck working against the protagonist can be a more satisfying narrative tool.

Keywords

💡Antagonist

The antagonist is the character or force that opposes the protagonist in a story, creating conflict and tension. In the video, the author warns against defeating the antagonist too early, as it diminishes the suspense and threat for the rest of the story. An example given is a duel where the protagonist easily defeats the antagonist, which can lead to a lack of suspense in subsequent encounters.

💡Scene Format

A scene format refers to a structural archetype that defines the primary action or event in a specific unit of a story. The video emphasizes the importance of varying scene formats to maintain reader engagement and to ensure that the conflict in the story is always evolving. The author advises using different scene formats to avoid repetitiveness and to keep the narrative dynamic.

💡Passive Protagonist

A passive protagonist is a character to whom things happen rather than one who drives the story through their actions. The video discusses the importance of having an active protagonist to make the story more engaging. A passive character might not make significant choices, which can delay the start of the story's action and reduce reader interest.

💡Through Line

The through line is the core conflict or central theme that runs through a story, essentially serving as a one-sentence summary. The video stresses the importance of having a consistent through line to avoid aimless subplots and to maintain the reader's interest. A clear through line helps to focus the narrative and ensures that all elements of the story contribute to the main conflict.

💡Soggy Middle

A 'soggy middle' refers to the middle part of a story that lacks progression, purpose, and feels slow or boring. The video mentions this as a common mistake where the narrative dips in the middle, leading to a loss of reader interest. The author suggests using a seven-point plot structure to avoid this issue by providing more events and tension in the middle of the story.

💡Three-Act Structure

The three-act structure is a traditional narrative framework that divides a story into three parts: the setup, confrontation, and resolution. The video points out that this structure can contribute to a 'soggy middle' due to the large portion of the story dedicated to the second act, which may lack clear progression points.

💡Seven-Point Plot Structure

The seven-point plot structure is an alternative to the three-act structure that provides more specific plot points to guide the story's progression. The video recommends this structure to avoid a 'soggy middle' by ensuring constant excitement, development, conflict, and tension throughout the narrative.

💡Consequences

Consequences in a story refer to the outcomes or repercussions that characters face as a result of their actions or failures. The video emphasizes the importance of having strong consequences to drive character growth and to create a deeper connection with the reader. Without significant adversity, characters may not be fully explored or developed.

💡Three Ps (Promise, Progress, Payoff)

The 'Three Ps' framework refers to the promise made to the reader, the progress of the story towards fulfilling that promise, and the eventual payoff or resolution. The video discusses the importance of aligning these elements to create a satisfying narrative flow. Misalignment can lead to a story that feels disjointed or unsatisfying.

💡Patriot Endings

Patriot endings refer to story conclusions that drag on by resolving plot threads one by one over several chapters, leading to a gradual and potentially unsatisfying end. The video suggests compressing these resolutions into a single moment to create a more dramatic and impactful climax.

💡Luck

In the context of the video, 'luck' refers to coincidences or fortunate events that help the protagonist without sufficient setup or foreshadowing. The video warns against using luck as a deus ex machina to resolve conflicts, as it can feel like cheating and undermine the story's credibility. However, luck can be used effectively to create tension when it works against the protagonist.

Highlights

Common plot mistakes in fantasy novels can lead to structural issues and a difficult editing process.

Nine recurring mistakes are identified that fantasy writers often make, affecting the story's suspense and character growth.

Defeating the antagonist too early in the story can diminish the threat and suspense for the reader.

Having the protagonist as an underdog can create more suspense and room for character development.

Repetition of scene formats can lead to a lack of variation and engagement for the reader.

Outlining can help avoid plot mistakes by providing a clear structure for scene formats and character actions.

Passive protagonists who do not drive the story can make the narrative less interesting.

Active choices by the main character are crucial for an engaging plot and character development.

A consistent through line or core conflict is essential for a coherent and focused narrative.

Lack of a clear through line can result in meandering subplots and a loss of reader interest.

The 'Soggy Middle' occurs when the story's middle lacks progression, leading to a slow and boring pace.

The traditional three-act structure can contribute to a weak middle, whereas a seven-point structure offers more guidance.

Weak consequences for character failures can hinder character growth and reader sympathy.

Adversity and conflict are key to revealing character depth and creating an emotional connection with readers.

Misalignment of the 'three P's' - promise, progress, and payoff - can disrupt the story's natural flow.

A prolonged ending with multiple plot resolutions can lead to a sense of the story petering out.

Compressing plot resolutions into a single moment can create a more dramatic and satisfying climax.

Relying on luck to help the protagonist can feel unsatisfying and like cheating to the reader.

Using outlining as a tool can help writers avoid common plot mistakes and produce more engaging stories.

Transcripts

so listen if you're a new fantasy writer

you're probably making plot mistakes

with your novel and they're ruining your

story and I say that because over the

past year I've edited a ton of different

fantasy novels and I see the same nine

mistakes come up again and again in most

cases the writers have no idea they're

making these mistakes but they lead to

really big structural issues that turn

the editing process into a nightmare now

I've been writing fantasy stories for

over 10 years and on my road to

publication I've had to learn about

these errors the hard way so I'm going

to show you how to avoid these nine

common mistakes and write a structurally

sound first draft that only requires

minimal editing later in the process and

the first mistake is beating the

antagonist too early so let's imagine

that you open your fantasy story with a

confrontation between your protagonist

your main character and your antagonist

perhaps they're having some sort of duel

where they're both using their magical

abilities against each other let's say

that your protagonist manages to

successfully defeat or beat the

antagonist in this scenario and then the

story goes on and you kind of progress

from there and maybe the antagonist

comes back and tries to attack them

again in the future

what's the problem with this setup well

if that is your primary antagonist and

that is the main force of opposition

within your story and your main

character has already beaten them within

the first couple of chapters the main

character has proven themselves more

powerful than this antagonist early on

there's not really a lot of suspense

when they have to fight them again later

in the story is there and of course I'm

using the word fight here but this can

also apply to more verbal battles to

confrontations that aren't purely

physical of course you can level up that

antagonist as the story progresses you

can make them more powerful more

intimidating more threatening but I

often find that when stories start with

the antagonist being easily beaten

easily vanquished it just really means

we have diminished threat throughout the

rest of your story and there's not a lot

of room for the main character to grow

the solution to avoiding this mistake I

often find is to have your main

character be the underdog so perhaps

they fight the antagonist early in the

story but instead of beating them easily

they just manage to fend them off and

they make a desperate Escape but they're

doing so from this perilous place where

it's very clear that the antagonist is

stronger than them mistake number two is

repetitive scene formats a scene format

is a specific structural archetype that

defines the prime memory action taking

place in a particular unit of your story

an example scene format might be a

romantic confession between two

characters or a stealthy infiltration

into a palace you can kind of think of

scene formats as different containers

and you could fill these containers with

whatever you want but they provide a

base level of structure almost like this

sort of template and these guidelines

for what you might expect to write in a

scene like this so there are hundreds of

different scene formats and you could

perhaps make the argument that within

the fantasy genre there are hundreds of

fantasy specific scene formats as well

but oftentimes when I am editing

writer's books inside my story coaching

program I usually find that they're just

using one or two scene formats over and

over again so chapter one might have two

characters having a conversation in

their house and then chapter two might

have two characters having a

conversation in their house and chapter

three has two characters having

conversation in a barn something I like

to do at the outlining phase of my

writing process and I find that

outlining is a really useful tool for

avoiding all of the plot mistakes I'm

about to talk about in this video I

often put down next to each of my scenes

in the outline what type of scene format

it is so maybe my first scene is a

sneaking scene the second scene is an

argument between two characters the

third scene is a battle and it's just a

really easy way to see at a glance am I

providing enough variation with my scene

formats so that readers are constantly

going to be engaged and so that the

conflict in the story is always shifting

and forcing characters to adapt and

overcome new challenges and on the note

of challenges this leads to mistake

number three passive protagonists so a

passive protagonist is a character where

the story happens to them rather than

the story happening because of them the

rule of thumb I like to follow is that

if you can easily take your main

character out of the story and nothing

changes

your character is probably overly

passive and it probably means the story

isn't as interesting as it could be

often it feels like a novel doesn't

really begin until your main character

makes their first truly active choice

and if you never have your characters

make an active Choice it can constantly

feel like you're waiting for the novel

to begin all the way to the end and this

is something that I notice and often

note down for my story coaching clients

I often tell them this here this point

at 35 of the way through the novel or 65

of the way through the novel this

actually feels like it's Where Your

Story begins because it's the first

active choice that your character made

up until that point I felt like I was

just waiting for something to happen now

of course your character can start out

as being passive and a character's

passiveness can be an interesting aspect

of their design but generally speaking

the more active choices your character

makes the more interesting the plot is

going to feel and as the plot progresses

you usually want your character to make

more and more active choices becoming

increase recently active as the story

progresses towards the climax mistake

number four no consistent through line

so a through line I like to think of as

the core conflict that's kind of running

through the story in other words what is

the one sentence summary of your book

that's probably going to touch upon

through line and it's going to touch

upon the core conflict of your story and

this is a question that's very important

to ask yourself when you're writing is

what actually is the one sentence three

line in this story maybe that sounds

like stupidly obvious but there are a

lot of writers who I talk to who

struggle to summarize their story in one

sentence and of course your story is

about so much more than that one

sentence description so trying to

encapsulate it in one sentence can be a

really difficult task but I think it's

immensely valuable to force yourself to

do this because very quickly you're

going to realize if your story has this

consistent through line or not and the

problem with not having a consistent

through line is that it leads to a lot

of meanderingness and purposelessness

with your sins oftentimes when I'm

reading a story and it feels like

there's all of these pointless subplots

or it feels like I'm bored within the

scene it's usually because the writer

has forgotten what the through line is

of their narrative and they have

deviated away from it in a way that

feels like it's cheating me as a reader

I came here for this specific conflict

and now we're over here doing this

different thing instead I want to get

back to this conflict that's where my

interest is that's where all of my

curiosity lies in this narrative this

mistake can also manifest as a lack of

conflict if it feels like there's just

not really anything happening in the

story and your main character isn't

being challenged isn't being forced to

overcome difficult obstacles it may be

because you have lost sight of the

through line of tension and conflict in

your narrative or perhaps it wasn't

really clearly defined to begin with now

if that is the case and you feel like oh

yeah Jed you're kind of right maybe my

story has a bit of this mistake right

now what do I do oftentimes the through

line is there there just might be four

or five three lines that you weren't

really sure

which one to commit to and your job as a

writer when you're going back and

editing through the book or perhaps

you're working through the first draft

right now is to write down all the

different through lines and I say this

with a lot of conviction because I

literally told this to a story coaching

client the other day

write down all the different through

lines that you are kind of interested in

exploring in the story or that you have

explored in your first draft so in the

case of this writer she had you know

maybe four or five different through

lines that were being explored in the

narrative but it didn't necessarily feel

like there was one that was standing out

to me that was driving the spine of the

story write down all these different

through lines and then ask yourself

which one of these is the most developed

in the narrative right now and which one

am I most interested in pursuing and of

course you can have these different

subplots but it's really useful to just

know what is the core source of conflict

and Challenge and growth for your main

character mistake number five is a soggy

middle this occurs when the middle of

your story lacks progression and purpose

and feels kind of slow and boring with

the pacing oftentimes as writers we come

into a narrative with perhaps a very

clear idea of our beginning and our end

but that middle stretch of your

narrative can be quite intimidating and

I hear from writers all the time who say

ah Jed I got 20 30 000 words into my

novel but then I kind of gave up and

that's exactly what the Soggy middle is

all about this mistake is very common

where you see writers maybe have a

strong start to their story man in the

middle things kind of dip and gets a bit

boring and it gets a bit stale and that

is probably when readers are going to

put down your book and move away so one

of the things I think actually creates

this soggy middle is the traditional

three-act structure now three-act

structure has a lot of prose to it but

one of the big issues that I see with it

is that you've got the First Act the

first 25 of the novel you've got the

third act the last 25 of your novel and

then you've got the second act which is

the middle part of the story but that

middle part is like 50 and if you look

at traditional three-act structure the

only really anchoring scene you've got

in that second act is perhaps the start

of the second act the end of the second

act and the midpoint but that doesn't

actually give you a lot to go on as a

writer because that could represent

present like 60 80 000 words of your

novel and to give a really quick

definition of three-act structure here

Act One involves the sort of exposition

setting up the world the inciting action

that kicks the story off and then the

turning point where the character sets

off on their Adventure Act 2 involves

rising action the midpoint of the story

where there's usually some sort of

traumatic change and then the Turning

Point into act three often described as

sort of The Dark Knight of the Soul

where it looks like the character has

all hope lost for them and then act

three is the climax and the ending of

your story now of course you can make

three-act structure work but for me

personally I found it way easier to

avoid the Soggy middle syndrome when i

shifted to a seven point plot structure

and that's because the seven points of

this structure provides you with just

more stuff happening in the middle part

of your story and it just gives you a

better guide and template to make sure

that there's constant excitement

development conflict and tension

throughout the narrative to provide a

brief summary of seven point plot

structure you've got your opening book

where you introduce the protagonist and

especially his flaws and Desires in a

compelling way then you have plot term 1

which is where the protagonist is taken

from the Ordinary World and thrusts into

the extraordinary world of your story

pinch point one where pressure is

applied to the main character usually

through the introduction or some sort of

action from the main antagonist then you

reach the midpoint and this is typically

where the protagonist fully moves from

passive reaction to active action and

resolves to stop or fight the antagonist

next you have pinch Point 2 where more

pressure is applied to the protagonist

really forcing them into their darkest

and lowest moment possible and that

leads to plot turn two where the

protagonist discovers or sometimes

realizes a key piece of information that

helps them defeat the antagonist lastly

we have the resolution where the

protagonist achieves or fails to achieve

his object of Desire now if you want to

go deeper with structuring your novel

and not only just structuring it by

looking at plot points but also looking

at the character arcs also looking at

how you weave World building and themes

and suspense and pacing all throughout

an outline in a way that is really

comprehensive and sets you up to write a

really successful book then you might

want to apply it for my six week fantasy

outlining boot camp this is a group

coaching program where I'll be taking

eight writers on and I'll be showing you

everything I know about outlining which

is the most important part of my writing

process it's the thing in my experience

that will most help you avoid these nine

plot mistakes and the Myriad of other

plot mistakes that you can make as a

fantasy writer and in the program we'll

go through a series of live calls where

I basically show you my complete

outlining process and how that's evolved

over my 10 years of writing and over my

three published novels and my video game

but then not only will we have these

live training sessions but we're also

going to have these live group coaching

sessions where I'll personally help you

develop a comprehensive outline for your

own fantasy novel that not only allows

you to master story structure character

arcs theme design World building

suspense pacing and all these other

elements of story but makes you excited

to write a story and allows you to get

over the hump if you have perhaps

struggled with finishing novels or

perhaps you have finished novels but

they are in a really messy place for me

outlining was a tool that helped me get

over that hump that actually helped me

produce really great stories and it's

also something that I have shown a lot

of writers in my one-on-one story

coaching program as well with really

great results my outline was pretty

sparse I knew what I wanted to do at the

beginning and it would be generous to

say I had a loose idea of what I wanted

to do in the air I gave it to Jed and

once he kind of saw where everything was

going he then was able to point out

parts of the story elements of the story

that I had been trying to work in and

maybe wasn't doing so successfully but

he also was able to point out things

that I hadn't even realized I've been

doing either wrong or correct and been

setting up for the future and so from

there we worked together to create a

very robust outline having that outline

to help me get over the hump and finish

my story was crucial I would not have

been able to finish without it and I

definitely would not have been able to

make it as good as it is without Jed's

help I'm getting ready to self-publish

soon and I couldn't be more excited

about how it's going you can apply for

my outlining boot camp by going to

jettone.com forward slash outline

applications closed on October the 2nd

and we're kicking off the cohort on

October the 16th mistake number six weak

consequences many new fantasy writers

are really afraid to punish their

characters for failure and that's a huge

mistake because it's through adversity

that a character really gets the chance

to grow the depth of adversity that a

character faces

directly corresponds to the depth of

true character that you can reveal that

is the deeper the conflict that you put

characters through the more you really

challenge them and force them to face

their demons the deeper we can kind of

dive into their psyche as a reader and

that's really what causes readers to

develop sympathy and connection to your

characters and if you think about the

characters that you remember well from

the fantasy novels that you love they're

usually the ones that have to go through

hell they go through the most difficult

circumstances possible and they somehow

manage to emerge from the other side the

question I like to ask myself is what is

the worst possible thing that could

happen to my protagonist in this

situation you don't always have to make

that thing happen but it can really give

you good inspiration and maybe guide you

down directions that you wouldn't have

initially gone in if you hadn't asked

that question mistake number seven

misaligning the three p's when it comes

down to it a story is just comprised of

your promise your progress and your

payoff now that framework might sound

really simple but oftentimes when this

structure of your novel doesn't really

feel like it's clicking it's because

there's a misalignment between these

three p's so maybe you promised readers

a particular type of story through the

tone and the scenes and the dialogue and

the actions the characters were taking

in the first few chapters but then as we

get to the middle of the story it's not

really going there readers will feel

cheated and the structure of the story

just won't feel like it's working you

want your narrative to feel like it's a

logical flow from beginning to end where

each scene naturally leads into the next

moment ensuring that your promise and

your progress and your payoff is really

nicely aligned is the pathway to

achieving that natural feeling flow

mistake number eight is the Patriot

endings so I've shared this framework

with a few story coaching clients but

this is the first time I've really

talked about it publicly in a video and

there have been a few novels I've edited

recently where the ending drags on a

little bit longer than it should and

perhaps there are let's say four or five

key plot threads going through this

story one of those threads might be

resolved in a chapter towards the end

then the next chapter has another thread

kind of being resolved and then the last

chapter has the final thread being

resolved and it kind of leads to this

slow sense of ending where you're

getting these threads gradually being

resolved as we go towards the end of the

story but oftentimes it kind of leads to

this sense of the story petering out or

puttering it out towards the end because

once that plot thread is done then that

source of narrative Drive of narrative

energy

it is no longer present in the rest of

the story the better approach and this

is something I've shared with a lot of

my clients is look at the moments where

the plot threads within your story are

being resolved and then ask yourself how

can I compress these and move them

closer together oftentimes you can turn

an all right ending into an amazing

Ending by simply taking the four or five

plot threads that get resolved over the

course of let's say two or three

chapters and instead compressing them

into a single moment almost taking these

plot threads and knotting them together

into one knot where they all kind of get

resolved in this one moment it usually

leads to a much more dramatic and

interesting climax because instead of

having this little explosion here little

explosion here a little explosion here

you're just combining all your Firepower

into one massive explosion and then the

last mistake mistake number nine is luck

that helps the protagonist so of course

as with all of these mistakes here there

are ways to do them well you can have

luck that helps your protagonist in a

way that doesn't feel like cheating and

does actually Advance the story but

generally speaking if you're using

coincidences or luck to get your main

character out of a hole that they've

fallen into it's not going to feel very

satisfying to readers and it's going to

feel like you're cheating particularly

within fantasy novels you oftentimes see

magic used for this purpose where

characters will just invent New Uses of

the magic that we've never seen before

or they'll discover these loopholes that

were never clear before or they'll just

use aspects of the magic that weren't

really foreshadowed or set up in a way

that felt logical and believable on the

flip side of this it's totally fine and

it often is very satisfying to have luck

help your antagonist that is for the

main character's plan to be going well

but then they get unlucky the antagonist

gets lucky and then this throws your

main character into Peril now if you

enjoyed that video you might like this

one over here where I share six World

building mistakes so that new fantasy

writers make

foreign