Last night, for the first time, I told my husband I wasn't sure I could pull this story off. Every time I fix X, I find another problem with A, B, C and the list goes on and on. If I change her GMC, I lose his story. If I change his GMC, I lose her story.
It's a nightmare.
My original concept was so fun and light. Now I keep finding great conflicts, but I lose the fun part. I honestly don't see a way out. DH said I needed to look at it abstractly or just write and not worry about it at all. Oddly, I believe the GMC is there. I did like that he had a history where he knew who she was, but she didn't know him at all. Now if I have her know who he is at the beginning, that takes away an element of surprise, too.
It's like knitting with four balls of yarn and hitting a snag, untangling it, and finding a totally different color at the end of the line.
Do I scuttle it and lose $50? Write what I originally planned and the heck with the issues facing it? Tweak it and hope for the best in regard to the GH? Or do I rework it completely and slap the title on the entry even though it no longer suits the story for the GH? AAAAACCCCKKKKK!!!!!!!!
Yesterday I read BREAK INTO FICTION. The entire thing. Front to back. Great for the next book, and it'll help with this book, but I'm not sure how much I can save. It's like throwing a lifeline to a boat with holes and too many people inside. Someone is going to drown no matter what I do.
I brainstormed. I plotted. I bought sharpie pens. I got poster board. I made gobs of notes.
But now, today, in this moment. I got nothing. Nada. It's not a writer's block. I can write. I just don't know if what I choose to write will be the right write.
Yesterday, I reread my reasons for writing the story and the original hero/heroine cards I started with and I feel the answer is lurking in them. But where? I have my fishing line out, a hook in the water, and a minnow on the end. But no nibbles are answering my line.
So today? What to do?
I'll play around with it all a bit more. I'll fill out note cards, make my GMC charts, review my brainstorming notes, go through the BIF templates a CP sent me (thanks G!), and pray for serious AHA solution moment to show up between now and Monday.
And I'll query another agent with the third MS just feel some sense of accomplishment.
6 comments:
I'm looking forward to talking to you about this, because I didn't think the whole thing should be trashed!
I love your title today. ;-)
Deep yoga breathing...
I shamelessly borrowed a bit from you aha! ;)
I think I have a solution... will require digging out old stuff I cut, BUT let that be a lesson to all writers.... NEVER TRASH IT EVER...
Oh course, I don't know all the issues, but my gut reaction to reading your blog was to tell you to go with your heart. It already knows which direction it wants to take and the story is probably working better than you think. But again, not sure exactly what you're facing. So, good luck and I hope it all comes together soon.
Thanks Tina-I had painted myself into so many corners, I faced a major story line problem. But I kept going back to one thing I KNEW I couldn't change: the history between them. I spoke with another CP up in VA today and we hashed the problem out. One part of the story, to me, was vital in their history. Once we honed in on that, some pieces fell into place. At least I can see the pieces. Last night I couldn't see anything at all.
SIGH... lots of restoring old cuts, but I believe it's redeemable.
How is your writing coming?
Good to hear that something is falling into place for you! It is always frustrating to sit looking at a ms and not know which way to progress. I haven't had that problem in a while but I did have a few days of boycotting my ms because one of my characters wanted to be one way... and I didn't want her too. *grin* Then I gave up and wrote her the way she wanted to be...
Best of luck hashing this out!
hey Martha--this was a first for me. My characters took a major hike and vacated as soon as I entertained the thought of dropping a major scene in their lives. I had a blank mind... never had that happen. Usually I'm beating back other characters in other books, telling them to please be patient while I finish this story. But THEY ALL WERE SILENT. It was a very scary feeling.
But I did get it back ... tomorrow I walk with them.
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