This can happen to the best of us. When it does it's best to take a step back, take a deep breath, and remember a very simple rule. Cause and effect is how things work in the real world, and it should be what determines the series of events, actions, and reactions in your story.
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| It's all connected... or at least it SHOULD be. |
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Cause And Effect In Your Narrative
If you're writing a story, the things happening in it should follow a logical progression, and they should be connected in a way that's easy for your audience to keep up with. If the local rec center is going to be torn down because they can't afford to pay for the repairs to bring it up to code, that leads to our protagonists looking for ways they can fund the repairs. Maybe they band together to do summer jobs, arrange some kind of charity walk-a-thon, or enter a dodgeball tournament where the prize money is exactly what the rec center needs to be saved. At this point there's usually some kind of complication (a corporation tries to stop them from raising the charity, a team of bullies signs up to make sure they don't win the tournament, etc.), but in the end they usually pull off the win, and they get to keep the little piece of their community.
This series of events has an easy-to-follow logic... more importantly there's a sensible cause-and-effect you can follow. A problem arises, our protagonist(s) seek a solution, they deal with some setbacks, and ultimately achieve the ends they set out to in order to resolve the problem.
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| Just follow the strings, and it all makes sense! |
Now, it should be noted that characters (much like real people) do not always take completely rational, logical actions. The characters may lash out, act impulsively, or attempt to do something out of fear, greed, or selfishness... but even in instances where that happens, your audience should be able to understand where they were coming from, and why they took those actions.
The point is that no matter what actions your characters take, your audience needs to be able to see where those actions came from... and, preferably, that the actions taken have sensical escalation. This last point can sometimes trip authors up because we want to make things more action-oriented, or make the stakes feel higher... but it can end up making a story feel melodramatic at best, and silly at worst.
For example, say that our plucky young team of dodgeballers square-up with their rivals who are trying to scare them off their quest to win the tournament. Now, assuming this is a YA-style narrative, it's quite possible that the bullies go a little too far and end up pushing the protagonist's team around, maybe causing an injury to one of them that's just bad enough they can't play (like a sprained ankle, a broken arm from a bad fall, or something similar). What would not be in keeping with the tone, style, and genre would be one of the bullies taking out a handgun and threatening to shoot the protagonist dead right there in the park if he and his team don't withdraw immediately from the tournament.
Now, a confrontation like this does happen in the Stephen King story The Body, but that is a coming-of-age story about a group of friends walking through the wilderness and coming to terms with their own mortality. It's also been made extremely clear that the kid who pulled out the gat has a particularly bad home life, and likely has a screw or two loose in his head. It's a little extreme, but it's tonally consistent, and it's something we as the audience can follow. But it wouldn't be appropriate for a YA-style story about friends saving a part of their community through a relatively wholesome activity/sport.
So, keep that in mind when you sit down to tell your story. Make sure the actions of all persons make sense, and that they have an internal logic the audience can follow... but also make sure your story isn't going from 0 to 60 in the space of a sentence or two for no reason.
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