I was hit with a huge roadblock which I've tried to ignore for the past week, resulting in no advancement of my word count. I thought, any day now inspiration will hit and I'll achieve another 10,000 word day. But no... time dragged on, and my MS stuck stubbornly on 65,000 words. Plot advancement at an all time death. Characters who had no idea what they wanted to happen next.
So, I bit the bullet.
I went through my chapters and wrote a brief summary of each. Making notes - finding a few plot holes... and trying to figure out how the hell this story will wrap itself up.
I have officially:
2 characters with different POV's
3 subplots
2 main plots
1 terrible, lurking death of a problem
3 lies
lots of lust
5 countries
and no idea how they all link together.
Now I have a barely legible notepad full of notes and chapter summaries, and I have a niggle of an idea on how to go from here. I want to slap my forehead for wasting so much time. I prided myself on being a pantster but today that style had to morph a little. I had to plot.
Hopefully tomorrow I will advance my word count from 65,000 to 75,000.... fingers crossed!!
Have you ever had to amend your writing style? I feel like I failed in some way, that my imagination wasn't up to the test.
Urgh, I feel your pain! I have had to do a bit of plotting myself recently because I was in a similar position. As a pantser, it sucked to mess with my process LOL! But it has helped, so I'm glad I did it!
ReplyDeleteI know! I really didn't want to have to plot, but the story got a bit complicated. I forgot half of what happened when I started writing my chapter summaries! lol
DeleteHopefully you have a better grip on it now. I've always created a detailed outline first. I'd get lost otherwise.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Alex. See I wouldn't be able to write with a fixed plot. I work best when I have NO idea what is going to happen. That's when the character speaks best to me. Wish I could work off a storyboard plot - would stop the road blocks!
DeleteI always used to consider myself a light outliner. Only a few hundred words could provide enough skeleton for me to know where a 90,000 word story was going to go. But now I'm working on something new, and I have over 10,000 words of outline/brainstorming, and I haven't even written one word of a draft.
ReplyDelete10,000 words for an outline - that is a huge jump from a few hundred! For my other MS - 95,000 words. I had no plotline. I just researched whenever I found my imagination lacking inspiration. I have a feeling this book will require a few plot points, otherwise it's going to get messy!
DeleteI tried amending it once. I wrote out an outline for Cricket. Really rough, vague. Two chapters in I was already not following it :)
ReplyDeleteGood for you though for doing something different to get the story moving along again!
I find there is a happy medium being a "plotser" - a semi-plotter with pantser tendencies :-) I do a skeletal outline to give me the idea of what I would like to see happen as I hop from point A, B, C and so forth. Then I start the story. Along the way, the characters tend to take the wheel at some unmarked dirt road. We go through some topsy-turvy things but they somehow bring me back to Point Blah on my skeletal outline. All I can do is shake my head at them and keep on moving :-)
ReplyDeleteYou'll get that word count and wrap that story up so well you'll dance a jig!
I'll be on vacation next week, and I'm hoping to get 10K done and finish my WIP. Sounds like we're at the same problem; stuck at 65K.
ReplyDeleteMy first book was pretty pantsed, but I've been plotting the crap out of its sequel! LOL
ReplyDeleteBest of luck, Jade!
Haha! I'm the opposite, I have flow diagrams, plot outlines and charts galore. Then I freak out about filling in the detail :)
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you are breaking through the hump, I'm really excited about Ocean & Callan!
I was shocked to realize when I wrote AT with Kelley that I'm more of an outliner than I realized. I like to write chapter titles and what is happening or what might happen. And 10K in a day? Wow, that will be pretty impressive!
ReplyDeleteWow. Only 3 lies in the entire story. That's not bad.
ReplyDeleteI haven't had to change mid-stream. I usually just pants it. But for my next, I'm going to attempt to plot it out first. I don't know if that'll happen cause it's hard to ignore the itch to write. We'll see.
Wait, you have this?
ReplyDelete2 characters with different POV's
3 subplots
2 main plots
1 terrible, lurking death of a problem
3 lies
lots of lust
5 countries
and no idea how they all link together.
That sounds like the perfect recipe for a contemporary movie!
I'm sure you will get it all sorted out and move on to your 10g words.
Happy writing!
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