Plotting faults and solutions:

1. Story wanders aimlessly.

Solution: give the character a stronger motivation and more adversity. Rewrite without reference to the original.

2. Story has too much going on.

Solution: Cut down the number of characters to three or four, find one plot, rewrite.

3. Plot structure appears complete, but story seems pointless.

Solution: this is a character problem, not a plot problem. We must care about the characters, and it must matter what happens to them.

4. Ending is disappointing. Too obvious, or not planned and so feels arbitrary and tacked on.

Solution: Go back to the opening situation and replot.

#shortfiction Damon Knight