Well, last month I finished up the first draft of MAGIC’S FOOL and turned my attention back to BLOOD IS THICKER.
BIT had run off into the weeds about half-way through November and I had to figure out how to get it back on track. It’s a first draft. These things happen sometimes. Sometimes, even if you outline–which I do only in very broad strokes–you get to a place in the story and realize your characters simply refuse to do what you’d planned for them. Then you have to break out the carrots or the whips and try to drive them back out into the storm.
In this case, I’d brought my main characters back to something that is endangered that they are trying very hard to protect. (No, I’m not going to tell you what. You’ll have to wait and read it.) Anyway, one of the people who had promised to guard this something for them so they could go out and seek a solution had let them down. They came back just in time to avert disaster. It was an important point for the two main characters, who had been somewhat at odds, to come back together again.
Now, the problem was to find a way to get them to leave again. Obviously, they can’t put their faith in that character again. Their obvious motivation would be to stick right there. The quest so far hadn’t really required their particular talents; others could do it just as well. So, I needed to figure out how to push them out of the nest (so to speak.)
I needed some inspiration. By letting my subconscious turn this problem around, I found a complication that makes their quest more urgent. It also ties in neatly with a subplot I’d set up earlier. I also found a way to use their peculiar talents–something the other characters can’t do as well.
So, all’s well with BLOOD IS THICKER again. All I need to do now is build some momentum.
I will say, though, it’s interesting switching gears between a middle grade fantasy and a paranormal romance.
I had that happen in the middle of my NaNo novel, where one of my main characters decided to junk half my outline. It turned out well, he and I got through it and I didn’t kill him for it, but that was annoying. Now, as I’m trying to get through the process of preparing to rewrite said novel (for many a good reason), I asked myself a question about something fundamental to the entire book/story/world and got back an answer I totally didn’t expect. It’s having interesting and very positive effects. I’m starting to look forward to the rewrite now. 😮
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Yes. It’s not the first time I’ve had a character dig in his or her heels and refuse to go where I’d planned. It hadn’t happened for a while, though.
But often it does lead to new and interesting paths in the story.
As my dog agility instructor would say “You’ve got to be rigid about being flexible.”
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