TURN UP THE HEAT

cru·ci·ble: 1) a ceramic or metal container in which metals or other substances may be melted or subjected to very high temperature; 2) a place or occasion of severe test or trial; 3) a place or situation in which different elements interact to produce something new.

When a plot sickens rather than thickens, the cure can a device called the "crucible," a container, place, or situation able to withstand very high temperatures and in which something new is produced.

Put your protagonist and antagonist into a crucible and the plot catches fire. A lifeboat, for instance, is a good crucible. No one can get out of the lifeboat without drowning at sea. Toss in some immense waves, a brewing storm, and a time-sensitive matter, and the crisis builds.

In my most recent novel, CHANGED IN THE NIGHT, sixteen-year-old Allana Odette Blair finds herself in more than one crucible, a mental facility at the beginning of Act II, an ice cave later on, and as an abductee by aliens.

When people are stuck in a confining place or situation and can't escape, they are in a crucible. Put two characters opposed to one another into a steel box—your protagonist and antagonist, for example—and the story may just write itself.

Films use this device quite often. In MISERY, for example, when an obsessed fan holds a famous romance novelist hostage by breaking his legs, the backwoods cabin becomes the container or crucible.

An isolated mountain resort is the crucible in THE SHINING after an unstable writer and family become off-season caretakers. A kitchen can be a crucible, marriage can be a crucible, a job can be a crucible, a downed plane can be a crucible, a sinking ship can be a crucible. Two passionate lovers may find themselves trapped in a crucible as their relationship dissolves.

A crucible is a container, place, or situation that can withstand very high temperatures, so turn up the heat and see what happens. Most likely, the something new produced will be a more gripping plot twist as characters reveal themselves under pressure.

And a heightened crisis makes far more interesting reading.