Don’t Let ALMOST Sabotage Your Plot!!

Writing gripping scenes always give me pause. Will I do this scene justice? If I’m feeling fearless, I plow ahead and throw a character off a cliff, get them kidnapped, or make them endure something equally treacherous. But when my perfectionist tendencies rob me of confidence, I’m sorely tempted to use ALMOST to spare myself the pressure of writing the perfect scene. If my main character almost falls off a cliff, almost gets kidnapped, or almost (fill in the blank), I’m saved! But then I have to ask myself – or more likely, my critique partners will point it out to me – are you trying to BORE your readers to death?!? Can any of you relate to this conundrum?

In real life, almost is our best friend. “I almost fell for that scam,” you say. “Wow,” I reply, blinking reflexively. “I’m so glad you caught it in time. Or worse, you cry, shaking from head to toe, “A car ran a red light and almost creamed me!” Hugging you, I respond, “I’m so glad you’re okay!”

You may be wondering, “If almost works in real life, why doesn’t almost work for our novels?” I believe it can work if we put our main character through one death-defying trial after another. At some point, almost (or nearly, a close synonym) will provide relief to readers who might enjoy a break from the nonstop action and tension.

But consider this instead: how will readers feel if a novel builds up to the climactic scene and almost prevents anything compelling from happening. Severely letdown, I can well imagine, enough that many will find themselves unable to continue or tempted to write a scathing review. And that’s only if your almost climactic scene didn’t already propel a rejection from an editor or agent.

Yes, that’s an extreme example, one that you might not identify with at all. But don’t rest yet! It’s time to turn our attention to the little ways almost can sabotage a scene. A character almost trips, almost burps, almost blabs a secret, almost misses the bus, etc. We should all ask ourselves this: What’s the harm in letting them trip, burp, blab, or walk to school? At a minimum, individual scenes will be more compelling. At a maximum, we may prevent our plots from stalling out.

There IS an alternative if you or I can pull this off: throw character(s) into an increasingly nerve-wracking series of almosts, making readers wonder if or when … WHAM will occur!

Need a mentor text? I have two amazing MG novels in mind – both with a courageous, cringe-worthy main character named Amelia! Trust me, that’s where the similarities end. The first ironically includes the word almost: AMELIA GRAY IS ALMOST OKAY by incredibly talented author Jessica Brody. If you click on the title, you’ll be whisked to my May 9th interview post. I guarantee there’s nothing almost about the way this character flits between different personas in her effort to figure out her “thing.” The second mentor text I highly recommend is THE MYSTWICK SCHOOL OF MUSICRAFT by a talented author also named Jessica (last name Khoury), which delightfully blends music and magic. FYI, Jessica Khoury thanks Jessica Brody for helping her tune HER Amelia’s 12-year-old voice. Writers’ Rumpus blogger Rebecca Moody wrote a book review on December 20, 2019, which you can access by clicking here.

Unlike JUST and EVEN, the word cousins I wrote about recently, almost isn’t sneaky. Instead, we writers jump into the almost trap. I hope this post will make writers everywhere, myself included, think twice before we allow almost to sabotage the plots we work so hard to create. I leave you with some Thelma and Louise action for motivation!!