The "Banana Pudding" Rule of Writing

Photo by Nicole Winchel Brayton on Unsplash

I hope that title made you click. I hope you thought, "What is the 'banana pudding' rule of writing? I've never heard of it."

You've never heard of it because I made it up! And there's already a term for it! I tricked you!

I read a book lately that disappointed me. It was a paranormal horror about a man who accidentally invites a dark entity (like a demon) into his home, and must cast out the entity before it harms him or his son.

Pretty basic premise, which isn't a bad thing. It's a premise I like. Anyway, you can give the same premise to twenty different writers and end up with twenty unique stories (or as "unique" as any story can be).

It was a fine story in many ways. The scary parts were scary. The ending made sense and felt earned. And it left things open for a sequel.

But when I finished reading it, I was not satisfied. I was flabbergasted. And I will not be reading the sequel.

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You see, the story's protagonist is a man who sees dead people. He's described as seeing dead people daily. This comes up multiple times—although, to the best of my memory, we never see him seeing a dead person, which itself was...a choice.

You'd think that his familiarity with the supernatural would make him more receptive to the existence of a dark entity, but no, he's pretty skeptical about that at first.

You'd think that seeing dead people would become important to the plot. Maybe a dead person helps him beat the bad guy? Nah.

I finished that book, and I swear to y'all, his seeing dead people served no purpose. I told a friend, "That trait could have been replaced by 'loves banana pudding' and the plot wouldn't have been affected."

So, that's the rule: if you have a story element that can be replaced by banana pudding without affecting the plot, then you have a bad story element. Fix it or get rid of it.

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Isn't that Just...?

Checkhov's Gun? Why, yes, it is. See, I told you there's already a term for it.

;)

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