Responsible Use of Placeholder Brackets in Your Story

Photo © KelkoNiki | Deposit Photos — isn’t the puppy cute?

I thought this would be a fun topic because, frankly, there are at least two other writers (one well-established) who put it on the Do Not Do This List of Doom. Anytime someone makes that declaration, it brings out the non-conformist in me and I start coming up with reasons why you might have to do it.

Placeholder brackets are a phrase inserted in the story to flag that something needs to be done, or as a reference.  For example:

[RESEARCH WHAT THIS BEACH LOOKS LIKE]

The logic behind the Do-Nots is that it can be a form of lazy writing that will interfere with your creativity. That can be true. More about that further down.

But, like anything with writing, it’s not a one-size-fits-all.

Where or when might you use them?

Keep track of time in the story. I use this at the start of each scene, listing the month, day, and time. Believe me, it’s easy to lose track! I didn’t plug in my time Placeholders and discovered a scene that needed at least two hours had some time issues. Oops.

Names. Sometimes you just aren’t ready to decide on a character’s name, so you stick a placeholder in. One writer used placeholders for her character names until she got to the end of the book. I couldn’t do that myself, especially not a main character. That would make me crazy. But it’s what works.

Details that won’t impact the story. I’m not going to drop everything and search online to research the fall color of an oak leaf. It’s not something that will affect the direction of the story. In some cases, I’ve also found that sometimes, after a bit of time to think about it, I realize I didn’t need the detail.

Time to think. I’m #1 Intellection, so sometimes I get a little stuck while I think about a character’s reaction. If I typed the next word (as is commonly recommended), I would skip over that entirely. A placeholder kind of puts it in my face that I need to pay attention to it.

If stopping to research sends you down a rabbit hole. You know what I’m talking about. You search for fall colors to get the oak color, and the next thing you know it’s three hours later and no story is done. I have a friend who’s #1 Input, so she’ll find all the rabbit holes.

Placeholders like this are a great tool because you can make a list of them after you finish a scene and deal with them all at once. Ideally, you shouldn’t let any of them sit too long; you don’t want to make more work for yourself.  I usually tackle them after I finish the scene.

I’ve also found that I need them more in the first chapters than elsewhere in the story. That’s where my relationship with the story is still changing and I don’t want to interrupt the flow.

When should you avoid placeholders?

When you get stuck on a major plot point. On a novel I was cowriting, we got stuck and couldn’t figure out how the heroine should be captured. So we put in a placeholder and decided to fix it on the revision and continued writing. When we came back to it much later, a fix that might have taken a few days to work out turned into massive amounts of revision. Fixing it in a completed story broke other things, and fixing those broke still more.

When your creative side needs the research to create. If you need the research to move forward in the plot, stop where you are and do it. This is the reason the writers say to not use placeholders, and it’s a good reason.

When you’re crashing on a deadline. I was sick and trying to finish a story due at an anthology that day. Cold brain made me stick on one of the descriptions, so I slapped a placeholder in, knowing I would catch it on a cycling pass. Got the end, called it done, and sent it. About two days later, I’m thinking, “Wait, was there a placeholder in that story?” Sigh. (The story got a form rejection, which meant the first reader never got off the first page. I was glad for the form rejection!)

How do you use placeholders?

—

Superhero Portal is in the Humorous Fantasy Storybundle for the next three weeks. Click here to get an amazing array of fantasy books for your summer reading.

Book giveaway! Battles, Beasts, and Blessings. Find some new writers. There are over 50 books to pick from.