Tell Me this is a Growth Moment....
Jul. 11th, 2008 04:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mmerriamSo, the novel I'm working on this year, Dark Water Blues, has really started to kick my ass (which is not necessarily a bad thing). This is novel number three (or four if you count the Not-a-Milk-Maid-of-Destiny! novel, which is currently on hold) and I am having a much harder time with it than the previous books.
When I wrote Old Blood's Fate I was a stupid innocent, and just breezed through, working furiously and completing the first draft in about 90 days. It had a cast of dozens, and the POV moved from one person to another with each changing scene, and I didn't really use traditional chapters, and I took a mythological character and turned him into a (well-meaning) bad guy, where in every book I've seen this character in, he's always the Good and Wise Mythological Character. It wasn't very good: In fact, it was broken and clunky and fell apart in places. My reach really exceeded my grasp, but I proved that I could finish a novel, which was no small thing, and I learned a lot along the way, which led me to writing some good pieces of short fiction during that period. And I've learned enough that I think I can, at some point, go back and make it the book it should be, because there are good things at the core that can be salvaged.
With Last Car to Annwn Station I had a lot more seasoning as a writer, with several pieces of short fiction behind me and a whole load of shiny new things in my Writer's Toolbox. It has phantom streetcars and Twin Cities magic and Welsh Myth and I had a blast writing it. It took me longer to write, but it was stronger in the first draft, not so badly broken as its predecessor. This was the novel where I learned about tight plotting and really digging in and doing deep rewrites, and it was good. And I think it's a good book, a book I can sell, though only time will tell if I'm right.
But Dark Water Blues has turned into a struggle, though not a struggle I plan to quit. No, in fact I'm learning more and more about story and theme and tone in this one than I did in the others, but I am struggling with the darned thing. The first problem I'm having is writing in a tight first-person POV. It seemed like I was doing fine early, but the deeper I get, the harder it is becoming to hold the voice and tone. I've written tight first-person in short fiction and been fine, but here in the longer form, boy-howdy is it tough sledding.
Another problem I think I may be having is that I've created a sub-plot that, at nearly 60,000 words in, I realize isn't going to work and really isn't going anywhere. And there is a part of me that, after realizing I was writing a Hero's Journey, but from the POV of the mentor character and not the hero, wants to give Holly some POV, though it's been all Richard up to this point.
But the big problem I'm having is that I wrote myself into a stupid situation, because Richard and Holly have stopped acting and started reacting, which is the complete opposite of where we should be. They are trying to lay low, and that has brought the narrative to screeching halt. So now, I get to go back, figure out where it went wrong, cut away the flab, and get the thing moving again. Usually if I know I have a problem, I just make a note to fix it later and move forward, careening toward the end, but I can't do it this time. I need to sort this out before I can continue. And it sucks, and it's hard, but no one ever said this would be easy.
This is a growth opportunity, right?
Dark Water Blues
When I wrote Old Blood's Fate I was a stupid innocent, and just breezed through, working furiously and completing the first draft in about 90 days. It had a cast of dozens, and the POV moved from one person to another with each changing scene, and I didn't really use traditional chapters, and I took a mythological character and turned him into a (well-meaning) bad guy, where in every book I've seen this character in, he's always the Good and Wise Mythological Character. It wasn't very good: In fact, it was broken and clunky and fell apart in places. My reach really exceeded my grasp, but I proved that I could finish a novel, which was no small thing, and I learned a lot along the way, which led me to writing some good pieces of short fiction during that period. And I've learned enough that I think I can, at some point, go back and make it the book it should be, because there are good things at the core that can be salvaged.
With Last Car to Annwn Station I had a lot more seasoning as a writer, with several pieces of short fiction behind me and a whole load of shiny new things in my Writer's Toolbox. It has phantom streetcars and Twin Cities magic and Welsh Myth and I had a blast writing it. It took me longer to write, but it was stronger in the first draft, not so badly broken as its predecessor. This was the novel where I learned about tight plotting and really digging in and doing deep rewrites, and it was good. And I think it's a good book, a book I can sell, though only time will tell if I'm right.
But Dark Water Blues has turned into a struggle, though not a struggle I plan to quit. No, in fact I'm learning more and more about story and theme and tone in this one than I did in the others, but I am struggling with the darned thing. The first problem I'm having is writing in a tight first-person POV. It seemed like I was doing fine early, but the deeper I get, the harder it is becoming to hold the voice and tone. I've written tight first-person in short fiction and been fine, but here in the longer form, boy-howdy is it tough sledding.
Another problem I think I may be having is that I've created a sub-plot that, at nearly 60,000 words in, I realize isn't going to work and really isn't going anywhere. And there is a part of me that, after realizing I was writing a Hero's Journey, but from the POV of the mentor character and not the hero, wants to give Holly some POV, though it's been all Richard up to this point.
But the big problem I'm having is that I wrote myself into a stupid situation, because Richard and Holly have stopped acting and started reacting, which is the complete opposite of where we should be. They are trying to lay low, and that has brought the narrative to screeching halt. So now, I get to go back, figure out where it went wrong, cut away the flab, and get the thing moving again. Usually if I know I have a problem, I just make a note to fix it later and move forward, careening toward the end, but I can't do it this time. I need to sort this out before I can continue. And it sucks, and it's hard, but no one ever said this would be easy.
This is a growth opportunity, right?
Dark Water Blues
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no subject
Date: 2008-07-11 10:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-11 10:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-11 10:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-11 10:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-11 10:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-11 10:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-11 10:55 pm (UTC)You know that saying, you never learn how to write novels, you learn how to write this novel? So very, very true.
You're going to need a synopsis anyway to send this book out. Unless you know exactly where you fell off the tracks, I suggest starting with the first scene in the first chapter and writing a detailed synopsis.
Detailed to the point of writing down a sentence for each page and laying out exactly what's happening on that page. If you're still not sure, go back and add in a summary sentence for each paragraph. That should show you exactly when the plot went south.
This is different than an outline, which is kind of a wish list for where you want to go. This will show where you actually went.
I know we all have to find our own ways to get from the beginning to the end, but if there's anything I can do to help--holler.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-12 06:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-11 11:34 pm (UTC)It must be fun, 'cause otherwise it implies something slightly unflattering about writers in general and in specific. And since unflattering things should never be said about writers, it must be fun.
See? Logic saves the day again! Hooray, logic!
no subject
Date: 2008-07-12 06:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-12 03:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-12 06:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-12 12:19 pm (UTC)You're just at the "all is crap" stage. Keep wading. There's a shore on the far side.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-12 06:06 pm (UTC)Yeah, something like that. Every new work presents a new set of challenges, which I suppose is a good thing.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-12 05:15 pm (UTC)My first book was all done and then I sat back and re-read it and realized two things--it wasn't doing what it was supposed to do and it was actually more like 3 books. So I ripped it all apart, yanked out the stuff that really belonged together and began all over again. Very painful, but it worked.
First person is tough. Worthwhile when it works, but tough. Which isn't to say that I don't enjoy the heck out of a great first person pov book, because delving deeply into a fascinating character is one reason I love to read and to write.
Have you read the last book in the Harry Potter series? There was a bit where the characters just were hiding away, doing nothing much, and it got so boring. They were, as you said, just reacting and not acting and they weren't even progressing as characters. Argh...
It does sound like you need to go back some and see where the story took a left turn.
Good luck!
Garnet
no subject
Date: 2008-07-12 06:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-14 05:51 pm (UTC)And, considering the fact that I'm halfway through my first novel, I see that I have a lot of suffering still to come!