The Grumpy Author - Idiot Plot, Convenience Plot, and You

So you've got your story idea, and it's solid. You've got your characters, and they're likable, relatable, and badass enough to satisfy even the most hardcore fan. You've got your world, and it's intricate and deep without being too Tolkien-esque in its minutiae. You've got your magic system, and while it's not a treatise on the manipulation of arcane sciences across space-time, it works and it's a lot of fun. Your book is lacking only one thing... how the good guys escape from the villain when they've been captured (or some other similar incident that grinds into writer's block).

In comes the idiot plot...

What is idiot plot? Well for those unfamiliar, in short, it's when characters in a story do something completely idiotic and out of character (both 99% of the time) simply to advance the plot.

James Bond movies are a great example. How many times in James Bond movies do the villains have Bond in their grasp, helpless and tied up, ready to be executed, only for the villain to then do something insanely stupid that allows Bond to escape and win? Well, if we're honest, in pretty much all of the older ones. It's part of what makes them so campy and not age as well as they could.

Convenience Plot is similar, where something happens completely out of left field to similarly advance or extend the plot. A main character locking up over a dreadful memory so the bad guy can escape. A meteor or hurricane hitting just in time to stop the hero and villain from having their epic clash. Just the right magic weapon or item showing up right where the hero needs it so he can win the moment or even the story as a whole.

These two are often found hand-in-hand, helping an author escape writer's block by just throwing logic and forethought to the wind. It's not limited to writers who "pants," but it's often a telltale sign that a book was written that way. When you've painted yourself into a corner, it's often easier to just throw in a convenience or idiot plot trope to get your characters out and back on track.

It should go without saying that these are among the fastest ways to ruin an otherwise outstanding book. It leaves readers disappointed or even feeling cheated, because it's a letdown that usually tries to rely on the "rule of cool" excuse for something random happening. Alternatively, it makes the readers roll their eyes because the author reveals something that wasn't there all along but that they pretend was because "the reader doesn't have omniscient viewpoint."

An egregious example I remember from one book was the bad guy defeating and capturing the heroine, but rather than kill her on the spot, he took her to his lair where his one major weakness was hidden. There, she pulled out a "rock that she'd picked up when he wasn't paying attention" (that is an actual paraphrasing) and used it to attack his weakness.

It's not imperative to outline a book in excruciating detail, but I always advise newer (and even some veteran) writers to know where a story is going and how it will end before they ever put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. If you know your heroine is going to end up losing to the dark lord, you can build toward why he doesn't kill her immediately and how she's going to turn it around and defeat him. Otherwise, you pull Idiot and Convenience Plots out of your ass to make the story work - while also making it not work because it feels cheap.

Idiot Plot gets worse when authors force characters to act against their nature or the way they've been presented all along to help extend the book or advance the plot. This includes instances of really smart characters suddenly forgetting how to think, the celibate guy getting seduced, the tracker who never loses his quarry suddenly forgetting how dirt works, etc.

This is not to say that characters can't make mistakes or screw up or just plain fail, but that they shouldn't do so simply because it's convenient to the plot. Character growth is an important part of any good book, and making mistakes and learning from them is what helps us identify with the heroes and root for them. When they're forced to make dumb decisions that can't possibly make any sense, though, it's harmful to the character and can make readers take a dislike to them, which jeopardizes the book and/or series as a whole going forward.

My advice? Don't go for what's easy in your books. It might take a bit more planning to get your characters through situations, but it'll make for more memorable stories. Characters bumbling through one miracle after another, whether they're in the heroes' favor or the antagonists', gets old pretty fast unless you're writing a lighter side comedic fantasy.

If you're going to have a phoenix show up with a hat containing the sword you need to kill the epic monster no one knew was there, you need to have set that up in advance or it's a convenience device and nothing more.

What are some examples of Idiot Plot and Convenience Plot in movies? Share some below. They're usually easy to point out.