Why not just go to the cops? Why wouldn’t you just break up with that psycho? Why doesn’t she simply quit that terrible job? Why does the CIA and the whole US government care so much about this one putz? Why would the gangsters stash their hostage in the abandoned warehouse on the other side of town?

Why? Why? Why? It’s that dreaded question that, I imagine, haunts the  dreams – as well as the waking hours – of every screenwriter. It’s the leper’s bell of a story logic problem. It means you’ve faltered in your duty to deliver the beats with coherence and rational consistency, the audience’s or reader’s hackles are now up, the suspension of disbelief is broken, and the integrity of your whole creative masterwork is in jeopardy.

This issue is eating me alive as we speak. As I work through my rewrite, it seems that in my pursuit of cool, dramatic, unique storytelling, my plot has become polluted with logic gaps.  When I apply the “why” question to these scenes, it hollows out the narrative and eats away at my will to live.

I know what you’re thinking. Practically every movie ever made has some story logic issues, if you comb through it in the mode of predatory fanboy instead of transfixed-unconditional-loyalist fanboy; even the greatest masterpieces of cinema. Therefore, who cares? We didn’t notice them because the stories were so well told otherwise. So, all I have to do is match the greatest screenwriters ever to  step up to the plate? Oh, who knew it was so easy?!

Okay, so what’s to be done? Can a story be dramatically effective and make perfect sense, or does the quest for total believability reduce the narrative to a clinical, overly-realistic, boring, anti-climactic exercise in futility?

Well, now I’m just being silly.

Certainly, moving the audience is Priority 1. Without that, I might as well hang it up, right? I’m thinking there’s a balance, a sweet spot, a nexus, between emotion and logic that will get me to where I want to be, with a story that’s emotionally gripping, with a logic web that’s impermeable, except maybe by the most sinister and bloodthirsty fanboy.

For now, my new plan of action is to first hone the dramatic arc into what I want it to be, and then tweak the story logic, with a little research and good old-fashioned brainstorming (“What would your slightly-above-average-Joe do in this situation?”). Maybe by maximizing the “wow” moments, then dialing them back a bit to reality, that balance can be achieved.

I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

How about you? How do you (or would you) handle logical issues that come up in your writing? Let me know below!