Plotting
It occurred to me yesterday that my only real (I hope!) stumbling block at this point in my particular publishing journey is plot. Plot, plot, plot. I can create plot. I know how to create plot, to make it fun and make it conflict-driven. Unfortunately heretofore, I haven't made it whole. I've determined that this was why I dropped Project Atlantis and never managed to finish it. As a mystery adventure with multiple timelines and layered group motives and actions, not knowing where the plot was going (let alone how it would get there) was an itty-bitty bit of a problem. Okay. It was a fatal flaw. It hit the self-destruct button and never looked back.
I'm not a plotter by nature. I'm a big-points-and-go type. There's something about the parthenogenesis of having a story spring out of my brain on the fly that's not only thrilling, it's necessary. So long as I know my main plot points, I can usually get from A to Z pretty well (minus the middle letters...I hate middles...). Or, I could, until my stories became plot-driven instead of emotion-driven. (Truth told, I think perhaps they've always tried to get there, but my RP background blocked it for many, many years.) Now suddenly I finish a scene and I actually need to know where the story goes next. O_o I know! Insanity! What sort of world is it where scenes exist without each other? Where characters are paused, mid-movement, while I figure out what they're charging into? Not one I'm familiar with, that's for sure.
I have two options. Either I learn to plot and save myself a lot of time and angst and effort and heartache and hair up front, or I learn to rewrite better. I either have to choose work at the beginning, or work at the end. Personally, I'm guessing I'd much rather force my brain to figure out what the heck it's doing NOW than after I've typed "The End," and really want it to be the end.
So I'm trying to plot. I really am. And it's AGONY. Because every time I think I have a handle on something, I realize there's another piece I'm missing, or a character that needs a bio (or, you know, they all do...because post-baby, I can't hang on to info like that as well as I could before hormone-insanity-year). I was finally getting my brainstorming to move in a good direction at one point, ready to move to the next scene, when there it was. The side-plot of subterfuge. The reason people think this thing is happening, but it's really the other thing I already know. The camouflage. The thing that makes the protagonist's future partner get involved. You know, the stage-setting for the whole rest of the book.
AUGH!!!
Oh well. I have six days to plot, tidy up my life, and then I start my writing group's summer challenge - 90k in 92 days. It's about habit, not output. Thankfully. It's the habit I need, not the word count (not that I won't take word count, of course :). Six days to plot an entire novel with two interwoven worlds, a complex heritable magic system, and steam engines that need researching. That should be enough time, right? ... >.>
I'm not a plotter by nature. I'm a big-points-and-go type. There's something about the parthenogenesis of having a story spring out of my brain on the fly that's not only thrilling, it's necessary. So long as I know my main plot points, I can usually get from A to Z pretty well (minus the middle letters...I hate middles...). Or, I could, until my stories became plot-driven instead of emotion-driven. (Truth told, I think perhaps they've always tried to get there, but my RP background blocked it for many, many years.) Now suddenly I finish a scene and I actually need to know where the story goes next. O_o I know! Insanity! What sort of world is it where scenes exist without each other? Where characters are paused, mid-movement, while I figure out what they're charging into? Not one I'm familiar with, that's for sure.
I have two options. Either I learn to plot and save myself a lot of time and angst and effort and heartache and hair up front, or I learn to rewrite better. I either have to choose work at the beginning, or work at the end. Personally, I'm guessing I'd much rather force my brain to figure out what the heck it's doing NOW than after I've typed "The End," and really want it to be the end.
So I'm trying to plot. I really am. And it's AGONY. Because every time I think I have a handle on something, I realize there's another piece I'm missing, or a character that needs a bio (or, you know, they all do...because post-baby, I can't hang on to info like that as well as I could before hormone-insanity-year). I was finally getting my brainstorming to move in a good direction at one point, ready to move to the next scene, when there it was. The side-plot of subterfuge. The reason people think this thing is happening, but it's really the other thing I already know. The camouflage. The thing that makes the protagonist's future partner get involved. You know, the stage-setting for the whole rest of the book.
AUGH!!!
Oh well. I have six days to plot, tidy up my life, and then I start my writing group's summer challenge - 90k in 92 days. It's about habit, not output. Thankfully. It's the habit I need, not the word count (not that I won't take word count, of course :). Six days to plot an entire novel with two interwoven worlds, a complex heritable magic system, and steam engines that need researching. That should be enough time, right? ... >.>