Who needs logic?

If you haven't seen the above video, enjoy. One of the reasons I love it is because it heavily lampoons the deux ex machina device JKR used in HP3. Now, many people think her writing really started to take off in that book and excelled in the subsequent chronicles. Me... I'm conflicted. Her plotting got a bit crazy at times (Horcruxes and Time Turners are huge, huge plot FUBARs for me), but her great characters and universal themes provide such extraordinary momentum that most overlook those sort of issues.

Likewise, in MOCKINGJAY, SC introduces a plot point midway through the book to create conflict between Gale and Katniss and propel the story forward. K,G, & alpha squad show up in District 2 for the final pre-cap battle. Uh-oh, the mountain's still resisting big time. Gale comes up with the idea to avalanche the mountain... now, I'm no general, but this is pretty much Military Tactics 101, and would have been implemented early on in the battle.

I enjoyed both series immensely and these sort of misconstructs (IMO) obviously don't derail the success train of these books. In part because the stories have so many other things going for them, and in part because these are more plot points than story points (where plot gets you from physical point A to point Z and story gets you from emotional point Normal to emotional point Somewhere Else).

Ultimately, if you can ignite emotional connections/tension, your readers will forgive or even fail to notice the liberties you take with plot points. Character comes first, plot second. Always.

A Good (& Free) E-book by an agency sib.

Jennifer Nielsen's Elliot and the Goblin War is currently available for free in Kindle format. A good, fun read in the MG world. Did I mention it was free?

Is it better to think you're a better writer than you are or to be a better writer than you think?