Coulda Shoulda Woulda

The problem with books is, it's so easy to make what *SHOULD* be a B plot into an A plot and not know the difference.

That was my real trouble starting out- I fell in love with a character, and I tried to tell his story from his POV.... which ended up being really whiney and boring and plotless.  It was so hard to scrap the story, though, because I loved this character like he was my goddamned child.

So I sort of cheated, and meandered away from his story without making a conscious decision.  All for the best- except that I wasted months and months and have to scrap an entire manuscript.

Because I'm usually inspired by characters, that problem has happened *a lot.*

But I'm finally learning: even if you, their creator, have opinions about what lessons these characters should learn, and what they should have done, you have to bury those opinions as much as possible and give the characters the respect they deserve.  

The reader has to feel what the character feels throughout the piece- get trapped in their head- and have the same revelation the characters has, in order for that revelation to be real and pack emotional punch.  *RUTH RANDELL is FANTASTIC at this*

I think that one way to do that- the easiest way, in terms of craft- is to bury the "lesson" plot in the B story-line, to avoid telegraphing.  The reader pays so much attention to the obviously high-stakes stuff in the A plot that they give shortshrift to some important "clues"- just like a person would do in real life.

What are other methods of indirection?

Personally, I tend to become too close to my characters to think about lessons and shoulda-coulda-woulda kind of things.  But I'm writing a YA that draws on Persian traditions, and although for my rough draft I'm just going wherever I want to go with it, ultimately I don't want to be needlessly insensitive or heavy-handed or clueless, and give "take-away lessons" that I don't mean to.