A Fresh Start

There comes a point in life* when you must admit that you were wrong.

A story is trundling along at an exceptional pace, and you are in the flow, the Zen zone, of writing, when it happens.

The words come out slower, the character hesitates, the BBEG*** stops laughing long enough to question his life choices. You go from writing thousands of words a day to double figures, to eventually nothing at all.

You stare at the computer screen; the cursor blinking at you, and think…

“Why can’t I write the next bit?”

The answer to that question is different every time: the story has lost its lustre, the characters are boring you, the plot no longer holds your interest.

But the one I come up against most often, and the one I’m contending with currently, is…

The plot doesn’t actually work.

 It’s a hard moment for any writer. You plotted (unless you’re a pantser) carefully, made sure everything fit together and made sense, the characters had motivations; wants and desires, and the antagonist put obstacles in place. There are character arcs and story beats falling out of a folder marked ‘book plans’…

And yet it still doesn’t work.

Where did you go wrong? How is it not working?

It’s at this point that the wall starts to look very inviting as a place to bash your head. And you could do that and pay for the broken drywall/plasterboard and spend some time at minor injuries, or you could seek advice.

We are very fortunate here at Litopia that such advice is readily available and enthusiastically given. Even it leads us to the inevitable and horrible realisation that you must begin again.

I had a wonderfully illuminating conversation this week with our very own Bev Dalton (Vagabond Heart), though it did not end the way I had hoped.

What I had hoped for was to pick apart my latest WIP and find a way forward with what I had. To unpick what was wrong with it and get the story moving again. We did so, but what turned out to be wrong with it was… most of it.

The Protag did not have a compelling motivation; the BBEG didn’t seem threatening enough, and some sections were just plain boring.

And worst of all…

It didn’t sound like me.

I think that was the part of Bev’s feedback that struck me the most. Plot points can be fixed, characters can be given motivations, but voice…

That is unique to me, and it was missing from this book.

Part of it was that I was trying to use already existing stories that everyone knows: Robin Hood, The French Revolution, and the protag that doesn’t want to be king and because of that, I was following a script. I was just rehashing a tired old story**** and producing nothing original. Just because I stuck goblin actors in place of humans didn’t make it interesting enough.

So, I decided to start again. I have to find my own unique take on these stories, deconstruct them, move them around and slam them back together again in a fun way.

Only then will I find my voice again.

J

P.S. Massive thanks to Bev. I think this new outline is a winner.

*Probably several**

**hundreds when you’re married.

***Big Bad Evil Guy/Girl.

****or three.