Conflict and timing
Rather different things, don’t you think? But, as Justin Woolley, author of The Territory series, points out, both are essential to progressing a plot forward.
Conflict
What I love about his writing quote on conflict, is that it’s such a simple way of reminding yourself that your plot, your characters need a but creating moments to propel your plot onward. Think about the last book you read — or didn’t read or didn’t think much of: what moved the plot forward? Was it a matter of events, dragging the narrative down? Were the characters plodding along, without longing, lusting, crying for anything?
Timing
Timing is everything in this case. Does it not weird you out when events in a narrative are all out of whack? Like you expect an event to have already occurred, but there you are reading about it. It kind of gives me a feeling of one step forward and two steps back, you know?
What do you think? What book has given you that one step forward, two steps back feeling? Or, what book was in desperate need of conflict to move its plot along?
