So, I’ve been working on this story. My goal is for it to be a novel, and I don’t want to give up on it until I’ve beaten it into one. I figure, I’ve never actually finished a full-length story, so it’s probably not the *stories* that are lacking, but rather *me*. So, no point in giving up on this one, as though the next one might be any better. Nope, I hope to figure out my own process on this one, to learn how to write a novel.
I find writing to be very roller-coaster-y. One day I’m flying high because a scene just wrote itself out of nowhere–I expected the scene to start about an hour later and with completely different characters. But then I stop before I end the scene… I ran out of time during my writing group, in this case. And since it was going so well, I figure I’ll just pick up where I left off and it’ll be great.
Then there’s the great loud THUD when I return and discover that I have no idea how to continue the scene. The ideas that were in my head when I started the scene are now in a whole different place, and I can’t seem to corral them together in anything resembling like how it should go. Instead my MC just sounds petulant, or whiny, or … just dumb. Ugh. So I say screw it, I’m going to bed. Brushing teeth, I’m totally berating myself for having dropped the ball by not finishing the scene while I still remembered where it was going. Climb into bed, and just lie there, staring up at the ceiling I can’t see, still berating myself.
And then, like a light switch, I realize this is the wrong mental state. This line of thinking is just the right way to completely give up on the story forever. And I already know I don’t want to do that. (Usually it takes me weeks to stop berating myself… or even if I do, then I still don’t get any good ideas for a while.) I think, ok, so I don’t know how that scene was supposed to get where it should be going. Fuck it, let’s go in this other direction and see where that leads. Really simple way to do it, no fancy dialogue required. And then I realize, oh, that will leave me with the MC in a room with this other woman, who I think is her confidante, so they can have a conversation about what all is going on. Which I thought they should have, but I couldn’t work it into the flow of the story.
Woah, ok, so that makes sense. And then… And then I start imagining what they say, what they might conclude. And so finally I have to get up again to write it all down, or else I’ll *really* beat myself up in the morning when I can’t remember a single thing.
So, 450 new words in about 20 minutes. Unfortunately, it *doesn’t* lead naturally into the scene that comes after it. Does that mean I’m just not showing it, or that I’m not showing it from her PoV?
Oh, and I can’t think of anything resembling a title for it. I hate calling stories after the characters in them, but so far I’ve been calling this one Allie & Fen. If only I knew what the monsters are called, I might call it after them. :-/
