Plot: &The Big Bad Wolf

Yesterday, I came across a short series of tweets by writer, Audrey Taylor, that address a chronic problem among many writers.  She had the best anecdotal image I have ever seen for the problem of superfluous plot devices.  Rather than retweeting, I felt it would be clearer as a blog post.  Personal choice, but I've just never liked retweeting multiple inter-connected tweets.  (And hey in a blog post I can make it purple, WIN)
 

"Hubby has a phrase for writing that's all about the window dressing and not about anything underneath: Robotic Wolves. As an editor, he had a convo w/a writer like this..
D: You need plot here in the middle.
W: Hm. How about some robotic wolves?
D: A series of events that don't provide an arc are not plot. Having "robotic wolves" or mercorns will not make your MS either original or good. In the end, it's your writing that needs to be good. You can write an entire novel about wallpaper, if you write about wallpaper brilliantly." ~ AudryT

Hehe, robotic wolves.  I love it.  The strength of your plot comes from more than a series of devices strung together.  Don't let the "robotic wolves" gobble up the good things that you have going for you in your work in progress.

You can follow Audry on Twitter here.

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