Inspector Gadget

Any novel that depends heavily on its adventure component needs a constant supply of new challenges for its protagonist. Depending on the author’s imagination, and willingness to research, the plot steps also try to be as original as possible. The more exotic wrinkles the reader is shown, the better. We are going on an adventure, after all.

If derring-do and/or tech prowess are all a book has to offer, however, the author is engaged in a game with diminishing returns. He is competing with himself for the next and greatest. As the book goes on, the involvement with machinery or the like comes to feel soulless. A cyborg would really be better at that sort of activity anyway. 

For that reason, surrounding the main character with others provides a vital balance. A stupendous feat that is accomplished can be likened to a tree falling in a forest and not making a sound because no one is around. Who cares if the heroine saves the world if no one in the book cares? Or, at the risk of being confusing, who cares if no one the reader cares about cares? 

I want to root for my heroes. In order for that to happen, I want to like the hero, or at least understand why he’s doing all these amazing things. The best way to build that emotional chemistry is to pair up the protagonist with a lover or a buddy. You can’t make love or friendship exotic, because the relationship would seem artificial. At the same time, the partner can’t just stand there and say gee, whiz or say don’t get hurt but then lets the protagonist do 17 dangerous feats. The relationship has to build over the course of the book. Thickening that soup increases the reader’s identification with the lead character. 

Balancing the astounding with the heartfelt has an additional benefit. If a lover or friend believes in an event emotionally, it doesn’t seem as unbelievable. If the heroine wants to put her own life at risk, that’s required. But don’t endanger her thoroughly likable, funny best friend. Once you reach that level of reader involvement, we’re more likely to swallow the whoppers.

Exercise: One way to make a novel seem less gimmicky is to use less events—and heighten the coverage of the ones you keep. If you have written a five-page scene on facing a shark, for example, expand it to seven pages. By consciously doing that, you are increasing the level of details and character’s thoughts each time. That immerses readers more fully in precisely those moments they will remember after they finish the novel.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”                  —Arthur C. Clarke

Copyright @ 2025, John Paine