Handling Problem Spots
When we write stories, we sometimes come up against plot elements that don’t seem possible. The reader simply won’t believe it. What are we to do? I came up against a situation like this in For the Love of a Devil . To maintain consistency with the biblical account of Hosea I had to find a way to put the female character in slavery, but we don’t see slavery so much in America. I did the research and yes there is a very active slave trade in the United States, but it stays hidden in the shadows. The events leading up to that just didn’t seem believable. Even though she was already in a bad situation, it didn’t seem possible that the person who did so would sell her into slavery. I stumbled upon a solution that turned out to be much simpler than I would’ve expected and it even has a name. The plot device that I stumbled upon is called lampshade hanging or spotlighting . When one of my characters was about to tell my main character what had happen, I had her say, “You won’t believe me.” ...