mmerriam: (Dark Water)
[personal profile] mmerriam
So, 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

Date: 2008-07-11 10:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jodi-davis.livejournal.com
YES! Grow, Grow, Grow. Sink your teeth into and tear it apart. I'll sit here and we'll do it together.

Date: 2008-07-11 10:26 pm (UTC)
ext_87310: (Default)
From: [identity profile] mmerriam.livejournal.com
Every novel, every piece of short fiction, every poem I write, I learn something new about craft and about myself as a writer. This is a Very Good Thing, I'm thinking.

Date: 2008-07-11 10:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jodi-davis.livejournal.com
I agree. I find I learn a lot abut myself as just a person too, without the writer thing latched onto my throat.

Date: 2008-07-11 10:12 pm (UTC)
pjthompson: (Default)
From: [personal profile] pjthompson
FWIW, my third novel nearly killed me, too. Maybe it is part of a growth arc.

Date: 2008-07-11 10:27 pm (UTC)
ext_87310: (Default)
From: [identity profile] mmerriam.livejournal.com
I think it may be that we have enough experience by the third attempt to almost know what we are doing, but still have so veryvery much to learn that it gets harder.

Date: 2008-07-11 10:53 pm (UTC)
pjthompson: (Default)
From: [personal profile] pjthompson
I think that sums it up nicely! Or, you know what you should be doing but can't quite get there...

Date: 2008-07-11 10:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] stillnotbored.livejournal.com
A total, complete and awesome growth opportunity.

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.



Date: 2008-07-12 06:03 pm (UTC)
ext_87310: (Dark Water)
From: [identity profile] mmerriam.livejournal.com
Every book really is different, and I know this too shall pass, but at the moment it sucks! :-) I like the synopsis idea. This is what I did during the rewrites of the last novel, and it was a damned useful guide to figuring what was pulling its weight and what needed to go. I don't see any reason it wouldn't work here.

Date: 2008-07-11 11:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gryphynshadow.livejournal.com
Aren't growth opportunities so much fun! I mean, aren't they? If this isn't fun, then why do we keep doing it?

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!

Date: 2008-07-12 06:04 pm (UTC)
ext_87310: (Type)
From: [identity profile] mmerriam.livejournal.com
Fun, yeah, that's it! Yay for logic!

Date: 2008-07-12 03:38 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kelly-swails.livejournal.com
Growth moment! Yes! Go forth and be ruthless!

Date: 2008-07-12 06:05 pm (UTC)
ext_87310: (Dark Water)
From: [identity profile] mmerriam.livejournal.com
it really does seem to be a moment to go back and hack-n-slash until the book starts to behave again.

Date: 2008-07-12 12:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wordswoman.livejournal.com
Woo, look at Michael grow! Grow, Michael, grow!

You're just at the "all is crap" stage. Keep wading. There's a shore on the far side.

Date: 2008-07-12 06:06 pm (UTC)
ext_87310: (Pen)
From: [identity profile] mmerriam.livejournal.com
crap is fertilizer, fertilizer makes things grow...

Yeah, something like that. Every new work presents a new set of challenges, which I suppose is a good thing.

Date: 2008-07-12 05:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] queenofillusion.livejournal.com
It sounds frustrating to say the least, especially after having put in all that work.

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

Date: 2008-07-12 06:07 pm (UTC)
ext_87310: (Dark Water)
From: [identity profile] mmerriam.livejournal.com
There is really is nothing else to do except figure out where it went off the rails and get it back on track again. I think the fact that I'm floundering with the voice right now is tied to the screeching halt in the narrative as well.

Date: 2008-07-14 05:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bondo-ba.livejournal.com
Hmmm... Main characters laying low and the story coming to a grinding halt in the middle of the noovel remindss me a bit of the last Harry Potter book. Yes, I know it isn't literature, and she couldn't write her way out of a paper bag, but it might be an interesting book to have a look at to get ideas as to what works and what doesn't in that kind of situation.

And, considering the fact that I'm halfway through my first novel, I see that I have a lot of suffering still to come!

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