I’ve had the above song in my head for a while and been waiting for a good post to use it with. Then nothing seemed to be working out. I did a poem based on it, which seemed good enough. Not the ideal plan to use it. After all, there had to be some way to bring up failed plans in a real discussable topic. It wasn’t until a few plans went wrong with me that I came up with this question.
Have I ever had a plan that actually went perfectly?
Nope. College was about as smooth as sandpaper and several unexpected problems came up with the wedding. Parenthood has been one surprise after another. I can’t secure a release date for a book if my life depends on it. The one time I was incredibly prepared, I uploaded the unedited file and deleted the good one. The list of crushed plans is longer than the island I live on and ‘Long’ is in the name. I’m not even the only person this happens to. I know many people that make a plan and simple go along expecting disaster beyond their control. A few times I’ve made a joke that I could get a plan to work once I got a mind control device working. Though, I’m sure that plan would fail in spectacular fashion too.
Rant aside, isn’t this what happens in stories too? Villains rarely get their plans to work and heroes are routinely having to rethink their plans. There’s always a flaw or something unexpected that happens. You can only work against things that you know, so anything that you’re unaware of is a danger.
Highlight Below for A Minor Spoiler . . . Won’t Work Outside of Blog
One of the big events in Sleeper of the Wildwood Fugue is the first meeting between Sari and Kira Grasdon. These two have been rivals for Luke since Family of the Tri-Rune and they’ve never actually met. It’s all because of Kira’s cultural tradition of open relationships and she had the confidence that there was no threat on convincing Luke to go along with it. She simply didn’t see Sari coming. Sari didn’t see falling for Luke coming too and thought she was helping him with his relationship. Now, all three characters are in such a mess that you wonder who is going to kill who. I won’t say, so read the book. This is really where I start putting this plot baby to bed.
My point here is that is that it seems a major part of a story is that something goes wrong with the big plot. If everything ran smoothly from Point A to Point B and so on then it wouldn’t be interesting. It wouldn’t even be real. Strict, inflexible plans never work unless the person in charge has total control over everything. Possibly working your butt off to get things in the right place, but then you might still have an issue that is so minor that you shrug off. Yet it’s still something that happens and alters the results. Why should our fictional characters have an easier time than us? I’d think things are harder for them since they have higher stakes than trying to do all your food shopping before lunch and then getting a flat tire.
So, what do people think about plans in books? Have you ever had a plan go smoothly and perfectly? If so, what demon did you make a deal with to pull it off?
Legends of Windemere 
As the old writing advice goes, get your characters on a tree, then throw stones at them.
As for our own plans, things seldom work out the way we imagine. However, that can be looked at in two ways. One is, “I’m such a loser/screwup.” The other is, “Despite everything life threw at me, I prevailed.” It’s all a question of perspective.
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But some of my characters know how to catch and throw back. Others have crappy balance.
I think it also depends on how much influence we have over the derailments. Stuff beyond our control can be frustrating and it’s really tough for some to do a ‘what are you gonna do?’ spin on it.
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You make a good point. It’s important that a plan fails now and again. It makes the victory that much sweeter. Even if there is no victory, we love the character. The Brain never takes over the world, and Wile E. never catches the Roadrunner, but we love them for trying.
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I think a plan going south always demonstrates how a character can handle pressure and thinking on their feet. It’s almost like they have to prove they’re worth the role of protagonist in this way.
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Good point.
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None of my plans in life or in books go smoothly. A perfectly executed plan isn’t very compelling to read about. I just saw a movie where just about every plan the characters made went horribly, devastatingly wrong.
But I like a well-executed plan that works out beautifully when I know the characters have had some setbacks beforehand and paid dearly (like in Avatar).
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I agree. Flawless plans are dull and unbelievable. Though I’ve watched some TV shows that have the same monkey wrenches show up every time. So I guess balance is needed.
We talking Airbending Avatar or blue alien Avatar?
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Avatar: The Last Airbender. I saw the blue Avatar, but I rarely think of it. 🙂 I didn’t see the live action Avatar: The Last Airbender. I think I would be too upset if I did.
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Check out the ‘Honest Trailer’ of that movie. It softens the blow. Trying to type with an extra set of hands that refuse to release the wireless mouse, so no idea what’s going to happen here.
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I have plans that work and some that don’t. I think there is a Murpy Law covering plans. Let me paraphrase “The predictable outcome of a plan is inversely proportional to the critical nature of that outcome being predictable.”
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Sounds about right. Murphy and his Laws really do come into play here.
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I always have my plans go working, but that is because I dont expect them to work so I make a whole alphabet of plans which are closely connected. One of them always has to work, and by being reppared, you go over the failing ones fast 🙂
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Good idea. I try to make one plan and then adapt while things change.
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