A plot device fails

Wikipedia defines a plot device as,

 "...anything which moves the plot forward or maintains it.A contrived or arbitrary plot device may annoy or confuse the reader, causing a loss of the suspension of disbelief. However a well-crafted plot device, or one that emerges naturally from the setting or characters of the story, may be entirely accepted, or may even be unnoticed by the audience."

Plot devices are used in novels, television, and movie scripts. They may be a thing or event that reinforces the overall story line in the reader's or viewer's mind. Some are obvious (the statue in The Maltese Falcon) and some are subtle. Some plot devices are cleverly finessed while others are stereotypical and border on cliches. 

Plot devices are important. They maintain the story line and more importantly, they keep the reader involved in the story, they must encourage the suspension of belief that is required to enjoy a fictional tale. 

The importance of plot devices came to me while watching last season's final episode of Castle. 

For those of you unfamiliar with the show, a brief synopsis. A crime novel writer receives permission from his friend, the New York mayor, to shadow a homicide detective in order to gain insight into procedures he can use in his books. Not surprisingly, the detective he follows around is female, young, pretty and troubled. They quickly become friends and eventually lovers. The plot is standard, it's been done too many times before. I waited until season four before watching an episode, and then only because I'm a rabid fan of Nathan Fillion (Firefly and Serenity). The show contains just enough humor and misdirection (every episode has multiple points where everyone thinks they know who the killer is, only to be proven wrong) to keep it interesting, so it wasn't long before I went back and watched each season. There's also a plot device that runs through many of the episodes in every season; who killed Detective Beckett's mother? That question has been answered last season and that plot device has been replaced with another; will Beckett and Castle get married?

It's this latest plot device that rang false to me and disturbed my suspension of disbelief. 

Castle is supposed to be a best-selling author. He's wealthy. He has a house in the Hamptons and an apartment in New York. He travels the globe frequently, almost casually, and in first-class. He doesn't have an office, he works at home. His daughter just left home for college, and his mother lives with him in his apartment.  

Beckett is a typical detective, not wealthy and tied by her job to New York. At the end of last season she was offered a position as an investigator for the Attorney General of the United States. This would involve a move to Washington D.C. 

This is presented as a deal-breaker for their relationship. Castle opines that this will mean they won't see each other any more. 

This plot device makes no sense. 

Castle could easily move to D.C. and let his mother keep his New York apartment. He could incorporate Beckett's change of jobs into the life of his fictional character based on her, Nicky Heat. In fact, a writer might welcome this change in the circumstances of his character. It opens new possibilities and venues. Introducing this "issue" into the plot makes us wonder what possible objection Castle could have to following his girlfriend to D.C.

Perhaps the writers will explain this satisfactorily in the next season. If I were writing for this show I would have avoided introducing that issue. 

Clothespin Commitment

Chasing Revery is a blog I hadn't read before but will now. It offers a challenge to writers to come up with a short, 500 word maximum, story that relates to a posted image and includes 5 randomly selected words. 


Below is the image,

and the 5 random words.

1. Task
2. Digging
3. Flea
4. Price
5. Legend

And here is my tale.

Clothespin Commitment

The old clothesline hardly saw any use anymore since Sean bought the fancy new washer-dryer combo on sale last year. These days its primary purpose was to serve as the net when the kids played volleyball in the back yard. 

Meanwhile the clothespins sat in a box on the back porch, completely ignored and nearly forgotten. But today they once again had purpose. Today they once again would be entrusted with the task of securing Sean's laundry on the line, ensuring that it remained high until dry. 

Digging through the collection of clothespins Sean selected five of the newest and strongest to keep his white bedsheet fixed to the line, to prevail against all attempts by the wind to turn the bedsheet into a beautiful white sail and blow it across the yard. 

The clothespins had but one purpose in their lives, one job that gave meaning to their existence. The five chosen to secure the bedsheet against the wind knew that nothing could deter them from their assignment. They couldn't allow the flea that chose to use the clothesline as a highway from the doghouse end of the yard to where the dog was now resting in the shade of the sheet to distract them from their duty. But when the crow landed on the line and began to peck at these curious wooden oddities, they realized the wind was not going to be their sole enemy on this fine afternoon. 

The crow fixated on the clothespin at the closest end. He pecked and prodded until finally the clothespin lost its grip and fell to the grass. The remaining four clothespins silently communicated alarm. "We must hang together, we cannot allow this creature to defeat us. No price is too large to pay in our duty to keep this sheet on the line."

The crow, deaf to the clothespin's cries of commitment, continued to peck at the next clothespin on the line. Its resistance to the crow's assault was commendable but futile. Within just a few minutes it joined its fallen comrade in the grass. Clothespins two, three and four soon suffered the same fate.

Now only one clothespin remained to carry out the duty entrusted to the original five. 

This particular clothespin was a legend among Sean's clothespins. The gales of the Summer storm two years ago tore all the laundry off the line except for a pair of Sean's underwear that this clothespin refused to release its hold on. No crow, no amount of wind would defeat it.

The crow soon realized that he had met his match. This wooden toy fought off every trick in his repertoire. Acknowledging this, he lost interest and flew away. The wind, too, seeing that it couldn't dislodge the sheet from this hero's grasp, fell to a light breeze. 

Grateful to the survivor, Sean decided this clothespin should serve a higher purpose. It's now affixed to the side of his desk and holds all of his important mail. 

15 grammar goofs that make you look silly-CopyBlogger

There is a middle ground between being a "grammar nazi" and writing so poorly that you can't be understood. This infographic explains some common errors that everyone who writes for comprehension should avoid.
Like this infographic? Get more copywriting tips from Copyblogger.

35 Rules for Good Writers

1. Verbs HAS to agree with their subjects.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
4. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
5. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat.)
6. Also, always avoid annoying alliteration.
7. Be more or less specific.
8. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually)
unnecessary.
9. Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
10. No sentence fragments.
11. Contractions aren't necessary and shouldn't be used unless you don't want to seem too formal.
12. Foreign words and phrases are not always apropos.
13. Do not use more words, phrases, sentences, or other linguistic elements than you, yourself, actually really and definitely need to use or employ when expressing yourself or otherwise giving voice to what you may or may not be thinking when you are trying to say how many words you should use or not use when using words.
14. One should NEVER generalize.
15. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
16. Don't use no double negatives.
17. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, i.e. etc.
18. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
19. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
20. The passive voice is to be ignored.
21. Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.
22. Never use a big word when a diminutive one would suffice.
23. Kill excessive exclamation points!!!
24. Use words correctly, irregardless of how others elude to them.
25. Understatement is always the absolute best way to put forth earth shaking ideas.
26. Use the apostrophe in it's proper place and omit it when its not needed.
27. Eliminate distracting quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson is said to have once remarked, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
28. If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times: Resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly.
29. Puns are for children, not groan readers.
30. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
31. Even IF a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
32. Who needs rhetorical questions?
33. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
And finally...
34. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.