Ouch

This was going to be a very sensible post about constructing a plot. I realised today, however, that the plot I was working with for my current book had ... well, I would say crashed and burned, but it was more of a splat and a wet fizzle (splizzle?). I was still in love with the first half of the book, and the final chapters, but the middle had taken a very, very wrong turn.

I tried to fix it. I really did. I battled with it all this week, trying to make it work, but sometimes when you have to try that hard it just isn't meant to be.

Why it was dreadful

1) It felt contrived. Characters were behaving in a way convenient for me, but not in the way they would naturally behave. And they started to protest, and wriggle out of the situations in which I wanted to put them.
2) A cliched character appeared on the scene. She was about as convincing as the frighteningly large cardboard figure of Arnold Schwarzenegger in our local video store. Yes, our video store has probably owned that cut-out since 1992.
3) The characters started Talking About the Plot. The kiss of death.

So the whole section has gone! I have not worked out exactly how many words have bitten the dust (am saving it for the morning, when I feel stronger), but I think it must be about 10,000.

My natural talents do not lie in the area of planning out a good plot. I'm more of a seat-of-the pants writer. I tend to start writing with a character in mind; the character speaks in my head, and I take dictation. After a while I might get a vague idea of the direction in which the story is going, and I might even find an end point for which I can aim. As I make my way further through the book, the plot emerges. This quote describes it perfectly:

“It's like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” - E. L. Doctorow

My first drafts are pretty messy. I throw everything onto the page as quickly as I can, trusting that it will all make sense later on. If an idea or an unexpected character pops up, I throw them in. "A murder? Sure! I'll figure out why later on." I try to finish the book before making major changes, but that is because I usually feel as if I am heading in the right direction. This time, I felt like I had made a bad decision early on that needed to be corrected before I could continue.

Why it is no longer dreadful (I hope)

I went right back to my plotting basics: starting inside a character and moving outwards. I took my protagonist, brushed him off and sat him down in front of me. I asked him these questions, just to be clear (I had asked these at the beginning of the book as well, but had lost sight of them since).

1) What do you want more than anything in the world?
2) Who and what stands in your way? Do you feel you should achieve your goal, or are you conflicted?
3) How are you going to overcome your obstacles?
4) What scares you the most?

This may sound a bit flaky, but the new plot grew out of the answers to these questions. That horrible stale, empty feeling has gone, I feel excited about this new development, and I can't wait to get started tomorrow!