First, let me tell you a quick story:
One day, in the middle of 11th grade Spanish class, a friend told me a fun word fact. I thought about this fun fact for the rest of the day and realized I felt quite smart. As I got older, I wanted this word to pop up at pub trivia nights so I could pluck this otherwise useless piece of knowledge from my brain and impress my friends.
Years passed and this fact remained stuck in my head until one day I came up with a story. But how could I tie all these pieces together? Ah ha! Eureka!
I went to work crafting riddles for my MC to solve before he could get the next clue. And at the crux of my very first riddle--the riddle that put everything into place and pulled it all together at the end--was the fun word fact floating in my head since high school.
My readers were stumped until I revealed the answer. They loved the riddle and never thought twice about the logic.
Fast forward another year and I'm back at the story, working on world building and character motivations. There's a lot of work ahead, but it's manageable.
Until...
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Oh, bleep.*
That one shiny factoid is wrong. Incredibly wrong. So wrong that it was never right in the first place.
Back to the drawing board I go. I'm not trashing the story, but it sucks when you realize you have to go back deeper than you had hoped. I spent a good portion of the weekend feeling frustrated and simply overwhelmed by the amount of work ahead of me. But it's kind of like untangling a ball of yarn--I need to sit down and spend some time carefully following each thread of an idea and see where they all lead.
How about you... how do you manage setbacks like this? Have you ever felt like the bottom dropped out of your story?
* = (I'm reading Kiersten White's Supernaturally right now and trying to swear less. Win/win.)
Hate it when that happens! Something gets stuck in our brain that was never true. I'm sure you'll find something twice as good to take its place.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the positive thoughts. I hope you're right!
DeleteBeen there. It's like pulling out the foundation of a building and watching it tumble to the ground. But at least now you know what needs to be done, even if it is daunting. I take a deep breath, think through the changes, then dive in when I'm not intimidated by all the work I have to do. And do yourself a favor and don't look back. Keep your eyes on the prize!
ReplyDeleteI was trying to find an image of a building exploding for this blog because that was exactly what I was imagining. But there were too many 9/11 images so I went for something else. But yes--perfect analogy!
DeleteI've been thinking through the changes all weekend and I think I'm *almost* ready to jump back in with a new outline. I keep telling myself that this will only make for a stronger story. Eyes on the prize!
I desperately want to know what the fun non-fact was now.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, this is why I am leery of any story that's based on a single idea. What happens if the idea ends up being faulty in some way? Your story blows up.
And I'd tell you, but I'm afraid it would make me look even MORE like an idiot. :/
DeleteThat's rough! When I finished writing my second novel I came to realize it had some seriously major flaws that would probably require a full rewrite. I weighed the pros and cons of this, and finally decided that I wasn't married to the story/characters, plus I had another shiny new idea I'd just started, so I shelved it. I loved writing it... but I don't regret moving on. I love novel #3 a whole lot more, and it's a much stronger story.
ReplyDeleteThat said, if I suddenly realized there was some flaw in #3 that would require heavy revisions or even that I rewrite the whole thing from scratch, I probably would. I've become a lot more emotionally invested in these characters and this story than I ever was for #2.
If you'd like some company in your misery, Jodi Meadows recently posted on Twitter that she just deleted her entire finished draft of her current WIP (book 3 of her trilogy) and is starting over completely from word one. So I guess even experience doesn't necessarily mean you always avoid those situations. Good luck!
Wow--I couldn't delete the whole thing and start over from word one, that would kill me. I really like the story and the characters in this story. And since my last blog post, I've really been working on ironing out character motivations and some great lines have appeared out of thin air.
DeleteNope, I can't back down. Not now. I won't let my own silly riddle beat me!
Oh boy. *HUGS TRICIA* That sounds like when I discovered just how huge a hot air balloon was. I had to reimagine one of the most important and original part of my novel.
ReplyDeleteSit down. Go through your options. I came out with an even more epic scene, and so can you. Chances are, the story will be a whole lot better for it.
Oh boy. *HUGS TRICIA* That sounds like when I discovered just how huge a hot air balloon was. I had to reimagine one of the most important and original part of my novel.
ReplyDeleteSit down. Go through your options. I came out with an even more epic scene, and so can you. Chances are, the story will be a whole lot better for it.
Thanks, Claudie. I've been spending a lot of time going through my options, working the story from other angles, and trying to see what my solutions are. I have faith something will fall into place soon. I just need to get the craziness in my head to settle down and something will bubble to the surface. It always does...
DeleteOh, no!! I do hope you can work around this or find a way to make the story work anyway. Maybe some creative license to make the fact seem believable enough for the story?
ReplyDeleteAh ha! Great minds think alike, LG! Before I was willing to admit defeat, I tried to fit a square peg in a round hole by MAKING my fact fit in the riddle. Alas, I couldn't do it, creative license or not. But this is a blessing in disguise, or something like that. All in the name of making the story better!
DeleteYes, definitely had plot unravelling issues. But I find with a little time, something EVEN MORE AWESOME takes its place ;) Good luck!
ReplyDeleteSomething even MORE awesome?! I like it! Optimists, FTW!
DeleteOH wow, I hope you can untangle your story quickly! I'm at a tangled spot in my wip too and I'm getting a little down wondering if it's even possible to fix. The idea of shelving it is really depressing, so I'm hoping to rally soon!!! :)
ReplyDeleteColeen, I absolutely agree--the idea of shelving the story is just too much for me. I'd rather stew on it and take some time to come up with a brilliant solution instead of putting it away. I guess knowing I feel that strongly about it helps pushing me to find the solution.
DeleteMay we both write ourselves out of these jams, ASAP!
ohhhh dude. That sucks balls! (as you can see, I am not trying to swear less...) Do you think it will be really hard to come up with another equally awesome clever riddle?
ReplyDeletelol--thanks for the giggle.
DeleteI'm hopeful that something will fall into place (and so is Jessica, see below!). I've been composting, stewing, and writing al sorts of "What if this happened..." statements all over my book journal this past weekend. I have faith something will pull it all back on track.
But I'm also willing to make sacrifices to the literary gods, so if you know any pointers...
My whole story premise was based on a wrong fact. Imagine my surprise. I just tweaked it a little and bam, it all fell into place. Good luck, I hope it all falls into place for you.
ReplyDeleteA tweak and a bam?! Really? This gives me hope. :) Thanks for the encouraging thought--I hope mine comes together as nicely as well!
DeleteI have a few notebooks full of stories like that.
ReplyDeleteLee
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