Lessons for your Novel

The Rejectionist, one of the funniest writing-related blogs EVER, had a great post about how to write a story. The example used is from last summer's "Terminator: Salvation."

Here's a snippet.

1. You need a plot. You really, really do. A Good Idea ("What if it's the future! And robots are the boss of everything and this hot non-emotive dude has to find this kid who is actually his dad and send him back in time before the robots kill everyone!") is an excellent start, but a Good Idea is NOT sufficient to carry the entire vehicle of your novel. We don't care how highfalutin' your concept or your prose is; you leave out the plot and you are going to bore us out of our skull, and not because we are too stupid to comprehend the brilliance of your talent. You REALLY EXTRA-ESPECIALLY need a plot if you are working in genre fiction. Bonus points if your plot MAKES SENSE (see No. 2).

Click on over and laugh aloud.

Oh. One thing TR didn't mention: what's up with having a heart transplant surgery done in the middle post-apocalyptic Somewhere where everyone's fingernails are permanently dirty? We'll just give you a new heart and we can't sterilize anything but somehow you'll live and won't have a nasty staph infection even though there's dirt freakin-everywhere and not a bottle of Betadine in sight. As a viewer, I should suspend some sense of reality, but bacteria and open chest cavities will never... Oh, never mind.