In a recent post, Janice Hardy says that finding accidental connections within your novel can help you tighten your plot. “One of my favorite things when writing is when I make an accidental connection that fits so well it looks like I’d planned it all along,” she writes. “One day, it dawned on me that I didn’t have to wait for my inner writer to clue me in—I could consciously look for those connections.”
To start, Hardy suggests identifying secondary characters who don’t have a lot to do on the page. “These are great candidates for tasks you don’t want to give to your main characters,” Hardy says. “These characters also tend to hover in the background and the reader’s memory, so it’s not out of the blue if they suddenly become the key to plan, or trigger an important moment or reveal—they were there the whole time, right under readers’ noses.” Good candidates include friends of friends, recurring characters in certain settings, and sidekicks. Often, you could lift these characters out of the book without any effect, but giving them an important plot function helps them stand out.
Next, Hardy suggests examining scenes that provide a lot of information but little action or plot movement. While these scenes might be ripe for cutting, you can drop in details to increase their importance to the story. Hardy suggests looking for scenes where characters are sharing information or scenes that are similar to other scenes.
Finally, Hardy suggests reviewing your settings, especially those that are only backdrop. “Settings are frequently overlooked as a plot device because they’re, well, backgrounds,” Hardy notes. “But a setting can change the tone or feel of a scene and even make a goal harder to accomplish.” Instead of having your characters meet at someone’s apartment in relative safety, move them to a location that makes revealing information or meeting a risky proposition. Look for settings that have been used multiple times or places you don’t feel the need to describe. Instead, choose places that ramp up emotion or tension.
