Plot, plot, plot

Over the weekend, a few things happened that had me thinking about the importance of a good plot within a story. It is crucial.

The first was that last week, I bought two e-books and finally finished both of them over the weekend.  The weather was rainy for the most part and after spending two week writing curriculum, the old brain needed a rest. So I vegged, read, and watched a lot of tv. The first book that I absolutely devoured was Sex on the Beach by Amber Skyze. It was wonderful. It had humor, believable characters, hot sex, and a fast moving plot. If you haven't gotten your copy, I highly recommend it. You won't be disappointed. The second book that shall not be named wasn't as good. It was an impulse buy. I bought it because the premise of the book was similar to the MS that is currently being subbed out right now. With this book, I have to say that the problem was with the plot. It was too big for the type of book that it was, it felt like the author threw every sci-fi element they could think of, instead of just focusing on the two main characters journey. Sometimes there doesn't have to be aliens attacking in a great alien war in sci-fi, sometimes it's just about two people falling in love where one of them just happens to be from another planet. ;)

The second time that I thought about plot this weekend was when I was watching tv on my new mattress yesterday. Yes, I finally broke down and shelled out the money for a new mattress, when the husband was plastered against me trying to sleep on my side of the bed, avoiding the great cater that was on his side. It was bad. So bad that when you rolled into it, it was hard to get out of it. I digress, back to the idea of plot. Yesterday, when we found ourselves in Best Buy to buy new Ipod earphones, the husband picked up a new release movie, Skyline. Again, it was an impulse buy. (I have now learned a lesson about impulse buying!) He was so excited to watch it. By the time that the movie was only a quarter finished, I was checking e-mail and planning this blog. It had no plot. Aliens coming to Earth to kill us, crash, bang, boom! Why? What did they want? Where did they come from? And to top it all off, the aliens win!!!! I was screaming- get Will Smith on the phone STAT! Ripley? ET talk to your peeps! No happy ending! If anyone who is reading this is upset that I told a spoiler ending of the movie, don't be. I just saved you from wasting two hours of your time that would be better suited to cleaning the toilet with your toothbrush. It was soooo bad that when I went out to get sandwiches and wine (Yes, I had to drink!) the husband called me up to apologize for spending the money on such a horrible movie. After we had recovered, we watched the final episode of Smallville that we dvr'd. We had started watching the first season years ago but hadn't continued not because we didn't like it but other things came on that we were really interested in and never went back to it. The show was one of the fasted moving two hours, and why do you ask? It was because it had a wonderful fast moving plot with believable characters. Characters that we cared about what happened to them.

So I am going to use my weekend experiences to reflect upon my own writing and them importance of having a good plot in my stories, whether it is set on the Earth, a space ship, or in Ireland (WIP).

Peace out,
MRD