I've read several criticisms lately of 'contrived' plot, but 'contrived' does mean planned with ingenuity and hopefully this is what we do.

So, when people complain that a novel has a contrived plot, do they mean that the outcome and journey there is too obvious? Or do they mean lazy plotting, eg a plot relying on too many coincidences?

My plot is definitely contrived, can be seen to be so at the end maybe, but hopefully not on the journey there.

Just interested in any thoughts on this.

Casey

Casey, I think in this context, by ‘contrived’, people mean implausible. That’s the way I use it.

To me – and I might be opening a can of worms here because a lot of people know I never plot – it speaks of a writer who loses control of the story. They’ve written loads but can't get to an ending, so they engineer implausible twists and/or coincidences to quickly bring about a resolution. It’s the sort of story that leaves you thinking, ‘what the hell happened there?’ or ‘where on earth did that come from?’ Sudden, *unexpected* twists in a plot need to be foreshadowed, so readers can feel satisfied they spotted them in advance (even if it was subconsciously), not lobbed in at the end by a desperate writer who can't find a plausible way to finish the story.

Dee

Casey, for me, a plot is contrived when it relies on too many coincidences that aren't right for that particular novel e.g. loads of mistaken identities and overheard conversations to drive the plot forward would be fine in an English bedroom farce but not in a more, er, subtle work.

<Added>

sorry, cross-posted with Dee. Implausible happenings, yes.

You know, the more I read and the more I write, the more I am certain that every single novel ever written is massively contrived. Of course it is. It's a novel.

So when people say 'contrived plot' as a criticism, they can't possibly mean, 'Goodness me, everything hangs together in such a nice, neat way and look - all loose ends are tied up in the final pages.' They must just mean, as Dee says, implausible.

But contrived is nonsense. Of course it's contrived. It's s'posed to be.

Sorry. I'm feeling very passionate about this today.

Yes, Sapph, I agree and realism is an artifice; but there's contrived and then there's you're-havin-a-laugh-mate.

Ah, yes, that's what i thought it meant, not the more literal meaning of 'contrived' - it just got me thinking because of course my plot is contrived and i was going around in circles a bit, wondering what was wrong with this - as long, as has been said, that one doesn't rely on unsatisfying twists and coincidences.

Yes, it has to be plausible and subtle and so that maybe the reader can spot plot turns in advance, but also think back through the whole novel and think, ah of course, why didn't i see that coming.

I must say i've plotted this book in detail, i didn't plot my last book and i can see now that the ending was very poor. That's not to say everyone needs to plan all the details in advance.

Don't apologise, Sapphy! it's our passion that drives us

Casey

Yes, it’s a word that’s almost come to mean its opposite (there’s a word for that, isn’t there?)

I've been thinking about this while lugging boxes up to the attic, and what springs to mind is what I call ‘soap scenes’. You know the sort of thing – character in a room with her back to the door, talking on the phone and revealing some secret… ‘I’m having an affair with Brad and my husband would kill me if he found out’ and, of course, the husband is standing in the doorway listening. This is unforgivably lazy plotting, because we all know that if you're having this sort of conversation you make DAMNED SURE no-one but no-one is within earshot. That’s what I call a ‘contrived’ storyline… well, one of the things… there are several more!

Dee

I was thinking of it in terms of soaps as well, Dee, i'm often shouting out at the telly 'as if that would happen', 'oh, too easy', and i think that's definitely something to be avoided, it is lazy. The trick is to plot it so that it doesn't look easy, i suppose.

Anyway, phew, glad you're all happy to admit that your work is contrived, in the literal sense of the word, had thought i was doing something wrong...

Casey

When I think of contrived plot I think of something where the plotting sticks out too much and is too noticable rather than seeming natural. I think part of the pleasure is feeling like the plot is seamless, rather than seeing the author cranking it round. Its interesting isn't it though that we use these phrases all the time and haven't really thought much about what we are really meaning when we use them? Or is that just me?

And, of course, Dickens has to be one of the most 'contriving' writers ever...

I'm guilty of using the word contrived to describe plots a lot. In Aristotle's Poetics, he stated that the best 'complex' plots shouldn't be contrived: ie, characters should say and do only what seems probable and reasonable. The outcome of the story should arise naturally from the plot itself and not be contrived by any exterior devices like 'deus ex machina' – an extreme example of which is in the Life of Brian when Brian falls off a tower and is rescued by a space ship that takes him off on a joyride before deposting him back at the bottom of the tower. But in that case it's funny of course!

Obviously in a literal sense, all plots are contrived. So I guess it does come down to plausibility...some things are just too damn unlikely and convenient and to me that is bad/lazy storytelling.

Yes, exactly so, Snowbell. I kinda knew what people meant by it but i'd seen this criticism a couple of times lately and actually sat down and thought about it and looked up the word in a dictionary.
Like Dee says, it's one of those words which has almost come to mean its opposite. Wicked!

Casey

Oh, yes. And it's no excuse to put in a coincidence and say, 'But it is realistic. It happened to me!'

Cos really, the fact that something happened in real life doesn't make it 'realistic' in fiction.

I was always arguing about this with a girl on my MA. I used to tell her events in her novel were implausible, and she used to get seriously wired and tell me they were plausible, they'd happened to her. And I'd say, 'That's no excuse for putting them in a novel.' Then when we graduated she emailed me to say I was one of only two people in the world she hated, and she never wanted to hear from me again.

she emailed me to say I was one of only two people in the world she hated, and she never wanted to hear from me again.

LOL! Bet you were really cut up about that. I wonder if she's got herself a life yet…

I feel the same way as Sappho, but about the word pretentious. Of course it is. It's fiction.

JB