*sigh*
I'm stuck.
I've gotten my protagonist (and supporting cast) up to "the big city". The entire cast is visiting the home of a local dignitary.
My protagonist, 4 members of the supporting cast (all of whom have different agendas and levels of comfort with the current situation) are currently sitting having a rather … candid discussion about the protagonist's situation with the hostess.
And … I just can't figure out how to how to move forward. The Hostess is curious. Two supporting cast members are supportive. One supporting cast member is confused, slightly hostile and attempting to control the situation. The final member of the supporting cast is hostile, though trying to be polite.
I'm going back and forth with this in my mind, trying to figure out what I want to do. Frankly, I think I've gotten myself into a situation where I've got too many characters in the scene at one time, but I'm not really sure how to justify reducing the current character load.
On the one hand, I can slog forward and finish the scene ... somehow. I doubt the product would be very good (perhaps not even useable) but that's not really the point, the point there would be simply to have a base draft on the table.
On the second hand, I could skip the scene, write what comes afterwards and go back to it later. That would allow me to move forward, but would leave me with a niggling continuity gap, which I hate doing.
On the third hand, I could cut the entire "visit the local dignitary" sequence out and just put in a paragraph or two of exposition instead. I might end up doing that anyway if I really end up disliking the sequence.
However, the sequence is already up to 7000 odd words and I hate to just junk it. Some of it is okay.
Ultimately, the "visit" sequence introduces a key character. However, eventually, I want to move past that and do some adventures in the big city.
I suppose that asking what I should do is ridiculous given how little detail I'm providing, so ... I guess mostly, I just want to talk about my being stuck and hope the conversation might shake a few things loose.
When all else fails
Make things more difficult for the main character.
Usually works for me.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
try shifting the focus
Which might end up making things more complicated and thus worse but... it could give you a breathing space before shifting back to the main game. Could be anything from a falling star crashing through the roof to someone spilling a drink or the 'hostile' one stomping off in a huff. Shifts the scene momentarily and then you can step it back or change direction as you see it. Maybe a bit of 'zone out' introspection by a major player before snapping back to real time as it were, shrug. Whatever works.
Kristina
Another direction...
Take a step back from your story. Look at where you're trying to get your protagonist.
Does the visit to this house add to getting there? Perhaps your difficulty is telling you that they should be somewhere ELSE? Or, maybe you just forgot some "minor" scene EARLIER which would give the Hostess reason to support, or ... The list goes one. But, giving yourself some distance can help.
Another approach would be to take shameless advantage of an "Editor" (as opposed to a proofer). An editor should be able to get/maintain that distance that you (or I) as an author sometimes have trouble with. They can see the OBVIOUS thing we've done "wrong". A good editor will help you figure out the problem yourself. (So as to be not so painful...) But any worthwhile editor will tell you where you got "lost".
Best of luck,
Anne
Thank you
Thank you for all the replies.
I suppose I could turn up the heat on the protagonist. Certainly I don't see that as a bad approach, however, I'd want to figure out how to do that without blowing the lid off. So to speak.
I'm not sure I see a way to change the focus though. This story is constructed as a tight, first person narrative. If I'm going to proceed with the scene, then I have to return to that regardless. An interruption of some sort might work I suppose... I'll have to think about that more, that might work.
As for where the protagonist is going, the story is fairly tightly plotted, and the plot points that I want to reach beyond this scene are quite clear in my mind. This scene (and the larger sequence it sits in) are pretty much the weakest plotted structures of the entire story.
My problem with the idea of a content editor at this point is that I'm still in the first draft stage, and I don't really want to get bogged down in re-writes until I've gotten the entire first draft out. I'd also like to go through it at least once myself before I pass it on to any editor. This is a large project, it's at 70,000 words thus far, and it has an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 left to run. There's a lot of it to get stuck on, and I'd really prefer keeping my momentum going at this stage. This is my first attempt at a project of this size, and I'm very sure there are some major flaws in it. My overall goal for the project is more completing a work of this length. I'm expecting flaws, probably even flaws I can't fix, but I'm accepting that as okay as long as I can complete the project.
Anyway, thank you for the suggestions. Different ways to look at the problem do help.
One option
Just dump the whole scene and start again.
You'll be surprised when you do that, because you won't write the same words again but something that ends up a little different. Now you have an idea of the problem your first draft caused, you'll unconsciously arrange matters that words that were said later get said sooner; or vice-versa, of course. An argument might turn out differently, an antagonistic character may feel emotionally more involved or less, you just can't tell.
The human mind is a wonderful thing. You know that scene isn't going where you want it to, so as you re-write you'll find another way to solve the problem you generated before. I've had to do this a couple times in the past and I never fail to be amazed at the way my muse chooses a different path than before.
Good luck,
Penny
Hmm...
That's an interesting idea.
Given the way that plot points tend to vanish from my mind after I get them down on paper (or digital paper at least) that isn't really something I'd considered.
I don't know if I'm describing that in a way that makes sense. Ideas hang around in my mind, there are some I've had hovering in the background for years. When I actually get around to writing an idea down, it ... stops bothering me. It's not so much that it's gone, I can still recall it and run through it again in my mind if I wish, but ... ideas, once written, cease to call my attention to themselves.
However ... I could go back and try it again. Hmm... I'll give that some thought.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Slogging through a scene...
If you feel that there are too many characters present in the scene, connive a reason for some of them to 'leave'. Send some of them outside to view the grounds of the home as a 'tour' or something similar. Doing this will allow you to focus closely on the remaining characters and possibly write in some of the uncomfortable feelings, whether positive or negative that those remaining in the room observed when the 'tour' returned.
It isn't much, but it may be a avenue to kick-start your story enough to allow you to move on...plus it may be fun to toss a bit of underlying drama into the scene. You don't even need to write about what they saw while out on their 'tour' but just have them comment offhandedly as they return. Hope that helps!
Anon Allsop
Here's another way
I did this recently, and it saves alot of grief - Promise.
Go to the last sentence which made sense to you. Anything after that Cut it and Paste It into a separate File then Save that as something you'll Remember.
Take a Breather (unless you're in The Zone )then reread what lead to this point and see what comes up in your imagination. If items from the saved material can contribute to the new storyline, you can reintroduce them where needed.
Is that too confusing?
Wayz
Author of Dead Men Tell No Tales; The Novelization ( adapted from Mako's short )
It gradually dawns on me...
It gradually dawns on me, that the reason I'm having so much trouble with this one scene, is because I don't know where it's going.
One of my key goals for this story, was to practice plotting a large project, and then follow through on making it happen. And, for the most part, I've done that. Most of the plot points worked the way I expected them to, and led through to where I wanted them to go to link up to the next scene. Sometimes when I write, I don't have a clear grasp of where I'm going, but ... and it occurred to me, that those were always the scenes that felt the most ... off-kilter.
When I write shorter stuff, I can hold the entire thing in my mind, and I can see where it's going. So I generally don't feel the need for an underlying framework. But ... I know that doesn't really work well for professional novel writers. The really lucky ones (like say ... Steven King) seem to grasp proper plot structure intuitively. But I don't, so a key goal for me was to try to do that and figure out how to apply it to my own work.
I suppose I'm not really saying anything that I haven't said earlier in the thread, but it's still a shift of perspective for me. I was walking down the street and it suddenly hit me "Oh, that's why I can't move forward, I don't know where the scene is going".
I'm still not sure exactly what I'm going to do with it, but it has helped me feel like I'm making progress.
As an aside, I'm also aware that professional writers are really good at building interlocking scene structures, where scene A sets something up, and then scene B resolves it. And .. I know I'm NOT handling that part of my story well. However, that wasn't really one of my goals for this project. So even though my scene structure is weak in places, I'm willing to let that go as long as I'm adhering to the overall external structure. Getting the internal scene structure to work better is a goal for my next project, which ... probably won't be something I'm ready to work on for a few months yet.
Thanks again for all the replies.
Knowing where it's going
You don't have to have the entire shooting match planned out in your head before you write a single word, you know. Sometimes that's definitely a good idea, but there are other occasions when you might just 'wing it'. Of course, even in that case it helps to know what the end result is going to be, so that you have something to work towards, but even at that point your target isn't fixed, you can adjust your ideas as you go along.
Truth: When I started putting down The State does Not Makes Mistakes I had no idea what was going to happen, even as I wrote it. I didn't even have the faintest idea how the first chapter was going to end, or what the guy's name was, or even how the 'error' that gets him/her jailed was going to work. All I had was an idea that he was going to end up in a women's prison and get changed, nothing more. Beyond that there was no plan at all. I think it turned out well in the event, though there's some loose threads that really ought to be tidied up.
That method works sometimes. Are Those Yours? was begun in a similar vein. For other stories, I have a beginning and, usually, the last page, scene or chapter. I have this big hole in the middle that my muse tells me how to fill. Sometimes, the result is not what I expected at all, but that's muses for you.
Penny
Hmm...
Well, I guess that works for some people. I'm not sure it'll work for me though.
My files are littered with projects that I began without a clear idea of exactly where I was going and which I never managed to finish. This project (Let's call it the SW project) is actually moving along quite well, (with the obvious exception of this section). So, I think having a definite framework to write from is important in my case at least. Certainly there are plenty of reasons to lose momentum but I know that lack of pre-planned structure is definitely one of them for me.
One of the most interesting meditations on the writing process I've read recently was Carla Speed McNeil's Talisman, (part of her Finder series of graphic novels) where the focus character tries to learn how to write, and is deeply frustrated by her inability to get what's in her head down on paper. One scene that particularly struck me was when she sat down to (try to) write an idea that had been in her head for days, she felt it slip away, and realized it was gone. It was a heartbreaking scene to read.
Talisman was also re-published in her Finder Volume 2 collection.
I certainly don't adhere blindly to my plot, it's more of a set of markers that denote the "way". The actual steps I take to get from marker to marker aren't something I tend to plan in advance. But ... I think some structure is important for me.