Given that National Novel Writing Month is looming up I figured it was worth re-posting this from my archives – how to plot a story. Cue the evil laughter…

How to get a credible story plot and avoid the dumb ones

One of the challenges of NaNoWriMo – or, indeed, of writing any novel – is plotting out a credible story.

Unless you’re writing comedy – and trust me, comedy is one of the hardest genres to do – it’s far too easy to end up with something that’s too melodramatic, too absurd or just plain dumb.

One of the best examples I’ve ever read where a plot has been made deliberately absurd is Robert A Heinlein’s last ‘juvenile’ novel, Have Spacesuit – Will Travel of 1958. This was a brilliant riff on the sci-fi movies of the day – including what, on the face of it, seemed to be…