I don’t know if there’s a particular process for this, and so all I rely on is what I’ve been doing and any feedback on the plot from readers. Often, a lot of the plot for what I’m writing has been drafted, as it’s one of my favourite aspects of writing. Writing the whole story before I have to actually write it.

When I’m refining, I look for a couple of different things:

1. Are there any obvious holes?
2. Are there any subtle holes?
3. Have any aspects been overused?
4. Are any aspects “rose-glasses” writing?
5. Are there areas where I can enhance themes?
6. How hard is it to get from A to B?

Those are the general questions that I start with and the starting areas for fixing things in the manuscript. I’ll break down a little what I mean about each one.

Are there any obvious holes?

This one is usually where I catch plot issues that are obvious even as I’m writing the story. Often I’ll just make a note of them and continue writing. This might be things where I realise I’ve accidentally changed an aspect of appearance or setting, or I realise that a plot aspect is not strong enough, so it’s almost a hole.

An example of this is that I often forget where I’ve positioned something. I have gotten better at this, as setting visualisations seem to click instantly for most places, but it’s still a common issue where I might say something is to the “west” and then later indicate it’s actually to the “east”. This is basically my poor directional memory and just poor memory in general. Funnily enough, I don’t get lost a lot—in real life, in digital worlds I have no inner compass at all—but since I was little, I always mix up east and west if I don’t think about it properly. I think it might have to do with the fact that I have predominantly lived on the east coast, and so everything is usually to the west, and because I don’t regard it as the “east coast”, it for some reason sets my reference point in a weird spot, and so everything is just suddenly east and west. Which sounds foolish, but that’s the best way I can explain it. Trying to explain how my brain has a difficult time doing small tasks is something I would need essays and reports for.

Other obvious holes are when characters do things that are not part of their established personality. This might be more of a subtle whole for readers, but to me, it’s glaring, and a problem. It doesn’t happen often, but if I find myself not able to rationalise a decision made by a character in accordance to their design, then it’s an issue. Sure, people are complex and might do things out of the ordinary, but there are circumstances for that to happen. Those are points for development and change. But if there isn’t any of that, then it doesn’t make sense and needs to be corrected. Now, this isn’t a big problem I have, as it’s usually something that happens during the first draft with characters that might not be fully formed, but it’s still something I circle with a red marker.

Are there any subtle holes?

These are the holes that I often don’t notice until I’m reading again, and it’s most often not holes, but more frayed parts of the story, where plot might not be strong enough or slightly inconsistent. This is also where I spot plot lines that actually don’t have an end, which can happen quite often in a larger manuscript. And it’s not that a particular string runs through the whole book, it might just be in one chapter, but it’s noticeable that there’s no recognition.

For example, in the current manuscript for The Scarlet Cloak, there’s a moment where Lily has a bad reaction to the smell of Sage Wolves outside of one of the palace windows. The engagement of her instincts set her on edge and there’s an altercation, but reading it back, I realised that there was no follow up for the Sage Wolf. Which makes no sense since it would be a big deal considering she’s meant to be in the Ginger Willow’s palace, which is secured by the Willow Wolves and currently being helped guarded by Mountain and Cave Wolves. And so that’s something that I have to fix. And then that asks another question, why is the wolf there in the first place? I can’t remember. And so it’s a loose thread that is quite a glaring hole when you go through the manuscript as a reader.

Have any aspects been overused?

Sometimes dramatic flair or plot can be overdone. I want to make it epic, but there’s a point where it becomes tired or cringy. One thing that I avoid are the Neighbours and Home and Away script. If you’re unfamiliar with either of those, they’re evening dramas in Australia where there’s a deck of plot lines that they keep playing with year after year. I haven’t watched either of them since I was about fourteen, and so I don’t know if they’ve improved, but I just remember it being “same drama, different time, different person”. It’s also kind of like Supernatural. They die, they come back, they die, they come back. And there’s a point where that gets tedious. Though I still love Supernatural, that’s something I want to avoid with my writing. If people get to come back, there’s only one or two. There won’t be different arcs for kidnapping, love triangles, misunderstandings etc. I need to weed that out of there. They get one each, if there’s one at all.

Are any aspects “rose-glasses” writing?

This refers to writing that I do just because I want to. This reaches into the above point about overusing plot devices or lines to the point they become cheesy. By “rose-glasses” writing, I’m talking about the writing we do because we’re excited about the scene or because you just want that scene in there, but then afterwards you find that it doesn’t really work. Usually it’s romanticised visions of the plot or extra drama that’s fun to fantasise about. This might include dramatic scenes in five different ways, which is what I’m trying to avoid.

A pretty common example of this is when I do “projection” writing. This is when I give a character a heap of things in order to appease the hurt that I have buried in myself. I used to do this a lot when I was younger, and still do it now occasionally. It’ll often manifest in just heap of positive things suddenly for the character, and reading it back will almost always prove that it’s too much, especially when it precedes a lot of challenges the character is about to go through.

A good example is Myka, from The Demon’s Secretary. Though The Demon’s Secretary really is a pet project based on some manga tropes, I have started refining the plot and fixing it, but there’s still the issue of Myka being taken in by Gabriel and more or less all of her basic needs are suddenly met. She still faces a lot of challenges and needs to work through her trauma, but she goes from being in an abusive home, to being homeless, to suddenly living in a pretty decent home, and it comes off as suddenly “too ideal”.

Are there areas where I can enhance themes?

This is when I really start thinking deeper about what I want to convey to readers. I always have an idea, but there’s always improvement on its implementation and room to consider what I might have set up that I didn’t think about. There are some core themes that often embed themselves into my writing because of how I grew up and who I am, but I try not to enhance all of them, instead I try to pick three or four main ones that I think are the most important to the character and then the reader and I’ll try and improve those.

How hard is it to get from A to B?

Making a plot too complex can confuse readers and steer some of them away, and so I’ll often review the pathway from start to finish to check that things aren’t too convoluted or that there aren’t too many sub-plots. For bigger fantasy works, this might be different, but for my general writing at the moment, I want to avoid my work being overbearing, and so this is something that I’ll look for.

This is just a pretty general look at how I go about editing and refining my plot. There are other things I consider, and some of these might not be a concern for particular manuscripts, but when thinking about plot and fixing it, these are the main questions that come to mind.