I'm reading The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith, and I've just realized that almost every writer I've ever read skips over the hero's plan right at the end of the book. This is presumably because the plan's going to work, and they want you to be surprised at the way the book ends.
I don't believe in plans that work. That's not the way life ever actually happens. Since the worst is alway guaranteed, I think like you need to know the plan, otherwise how else are you gonna know how off-kilter things are getting as they start falling apart?
This is one of those things that makes me think that my work might be unpublishable.
Check out some Stephen King! He lets you know the plan up front. There is usually some swerve, either in the execution (Talisman, The Cell), in actually succeeding but the unexpected swerve happens in victory (Desperation, Mr. Mercedes, Langoliers), or its completely improv (Under The Dome, The Shining, Needful Things,) so it's unexpected.
ReplyDeleteThen again, Mr. King's finishes tend to be hit or miss too. Hmmm.
A better comparison to your story might be the Harry Potter series. Harry puts a lampshade on it in the final book, 'our plans never work.'
That's ironic because Galbraith is Rowling's pseudonym for detective fiction.
DeleteLook up 'Unspoken Plan Guarantee' in tvtropes...
ReplyDeleteThat's excellent. Now I want to write a story that somehow uses an unspoken plan that goes HAYWIRE. The only question is, how do I let the audience in on the idea that the plan is fucked?
DeleteYou could probably also write an interesting story where the audience knows the plan, and it ALMOST veers off-course multiple times. That could be interesting, too.
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