One of the best ways to alienate a reader is to present them with a scene that just doesn’t add up. A character receives a letter weeks before it was supposedly sent, a pet changes gender halfway through the novel—these kinds of logic problems must be found and fixed. Without solid story logic, a manuscript will fail.
In his guest post on Writers Helping Writers, TWA editor Harrison Demchick compiled a list of the four most common logic problems he has come across and the best ways to fix them.
Harrison’s post, “Four Logic Problems that Will Ruin Your Day (and Your Manuscript),” covers what I agree are the four most common logic issues in manuscripts—Rule Violation, Continuity, Inconsistent Chronology, and Rationalization. The detailed post contains an explanation of each issue, how it affects the manuscript, and how to resolve it. Logic problems do not have to be a manuscript’s undoing; as Harrison puts it, “Remember that you control both sides of the equation.”
Make sure you check out this valuable post, and never forget to mind your logic. A great big thank you to Becca Puglisi of Writers Helping Writers for hosting Harrison!
Harrison Demchick came up in the world of small press publishing, working along the way on more than two dozen published novels and memoirs, several of which have been optioned for film. He is an award-winning, twice-optioned screenwriter, and the author of literary horror novel The Listeners. He’s part of The Writer’s Ally team as a developmental editor of fiction and memoir, for which he’s currently accepting new clients.
