too clever, too neat, too pat

Heading off into the Valley Full of Clouds, as Terry Pratchett put it, and trying to reach the next point of the story. . . the chief thing is to "devise incidents" as W. Somerset Maugham put it, getting the character into one pickle, and then getting him out again only to throw him into a worse one.

Then, devising them is only half the trick.  Then you've got to inspect them and make sure they really work.

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