The question I’m always asking is: Is this scene, event, moment set up and logical based on what has come before?

At the bigger-picture level, or once a first draft is written and you’re fixing some developmental and line edits, it’s worth taking a good look at cause and effect. In real life, it’s okay for events to simply happen at random and without explanation, but in fiction, that’s a one-way ticket to potentially having readers lose interest because they feel cheated or not as invested.

As Jack Bickham says, “Effects (plot developments) must have causes (character background or physical reasons). So a critical question to ask of all the minor and major events in your story is: how and what is motivating the current action?”

This continues from the very beginning all the way to the end. One cause and effect leads to another cause and effect.

And this cause-and-effect chain, when done well, creates a strong sense of internal logic versus meaningless chaos, chance, and plot points that don’t seem to land as we’d hope! And don’t forget to mine all those potential quiet causes that might lead to some very exciting effects.

E.g., Bob is late for work because his car broke down, which could lead to meeting a handsome mechanic who has the type of personality he thinks he’s attracted to, but the guy’s gruff responses when he talks about his family show Bob that his current partner’s desire to always see his family is, in fact, what he also needed all along.

This can be taken further at the line-editing level (once you’ve got all the scenes in order). I love how Bickham frames it:

STIMULUS to INTERNALISATION to RESPONSE.

E.g., Hear the gunshot, scream “Oh shit!” internally, and then run away. It sounds familiar and simple because it’s how we naturally and instinctively respond.

If a handsome man is walking across the bar and Sam turns and flees, the reader is left wondering what happened. But if Sam reacts internally before fleeing—“I saw his picture on the nightstand of the flat I woke up in this morning”—then the reader is given all the details and is willing Sam to flee too!

Manuscript feeling flat? Feeling stuck as to where to head next? My developmental editing for queer fiction (genres: gay romance, crime, and historical fiction) or manuscript evaluations (an off-page analysis covering causality, character development, goals, motivations, conflict, and more) is a great way to improve craft knowledge whilst getting detailed feedback, next steps, and suggestions on your manuscript.

Don’t do it alone—let’s work together to move you one step closer to your ideal story.