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It might seem a little too obvious, but characters have to actually do stuff themselves. Despite knowing this, I can find it easy to forget when I’m trying to plan out the plot of a novel. In every novel-length story I’ve attempted, there is at least one point where I figure out that I’m changing perspective or doing something else that’s crazy to try to shoehorn the action into place. At some point, I figure out that its cause might be the fact that my main character isn’t part of the main action. Here’s a couple examples of what I’m talking about, and why they might not belong in a novel.
Explanatory dialogue.
Imagine reading a Sherlock Holmes story, and Watson takes up a whole chapter talking with a constable about deductive reasoning. There’s a reason why this doesn’t (usually) happen; Doyle did a fairly decent job of having Watson know just enough to be quiet. Whenever the doctor spoke, it was supposed to help deliver information a reader wouldn’t otherwise get.
The more complex a plot gets, the more there’s an urge to have people talking about world – or galactic – events. With so many different moving parts, it’s hard to make sure one’s story has disclosed enough information to be fair. So, some people do and say stuff that takes up time that could have been spent doing something heroic.
To be fair, some people might not think this is a bad thing. However, it robs most readers of the joy of figuring things out for themselves. Why tell people about an evil corporate empire when that evil corporate empire can just kick off the novel with a supreme dick move? The latter tells every reader what they need to know without having to find out every awful thing that company has done over the years.
Breaking perspective.
This is the thing that I’m guilty of. I have a book filled with scenes from one character’s perspective, and suddenly I find the need to jump to something else happening. Sometimes I’ll get the protagonist to overhear the important thing, but all this does is create boring exposition.
Most likely I get this from watching too many fast paced movies where the antagonists get cut scenes interspersed between the protagonist’s scenes. Some movies do this very well, and the occasional book will get away with it too (think about how the Game of Thrones books are organized). But what I’ve discovered the hard way is that it’s often a crutch. If something is important enough to break perspective, that new character should be as important to the story as other protagonists.
The main reason I find this important is that it makes a story better when the problem gets fixed. Action will almost always be more interesting than quiet dialogue. By moving the story to other perspective, it also runs the risk of losing your hero’s agency. That’s a big deal, because at that point a story becomes pointless (think Raiders of the Lost Ark; Indiana Jones actually didn’t accomplish anything).
Singular Fiction 