I've been reading a book called Immediate Fiction by Jerry Cleaver, mostly because they happened to have it at my library. It's a basic book on writing fiction with mostly familiar advice, but every once in a while it comes out with a real gem that surprises me. Yesterday, for instance, I was reading about the difference between novels and short stories--something that interests me since I can't seem to write short stories to save my life, but at the same time I struggle with making novels long enough. So what's the difference, according to Cleaver? Length, of course. Scope, theme, conflict, blah blah blah--forget all that, he says. The difference between novels and short stories is characters. Novels have more characters. 


After about half a second of thinking about this, I realized what a brilliant approach it is. Reading more about the way he uses this made it even more brilliant. Because, of course, adding characters multiplies the number of scenes you can have exponentially, simply because you can switch around which characters are in a scene. A with B, then A with C, then A with D, then B with C, then B with D, then C with D, and A and B and C without D, then A and C and D without B...you get the idea. The coolest part about this is that you can trick your left brain into thinking it's getting part of the creative action. Go through your characters and figure out which ones haven't interacted with each other yet, and then decide whether they should. 


Ultimately it's really the same question you're asking that you're always asking when plotting: what else can go wrong? But by focusing that question on new interactions between existing characters--and new characters, if necessary--you're giving yourself a whole new approach to it. 


I, of course, immediately realized a whole bunch of scenes I've left out of my novel that I definitely need to have. I don't have a single scene between the love interest and the sidekick. Not one. And come on--there's so much potential there. What about the sidekick and the antagonist? Nothing! And heck, even the love interest and the antagonist hardly have any scenes--in fact, I don't think they have any without the protagonist there too. Off to make note cards...