Dealing with Writing Hangovers

No, not the alcoholic sort - tho those happen to writers too I've heard - but writing ones.  This is what happens:  you start writing, your character needs a problem/career/best friend so you give them one and carry on.  

Much, much later on, and you're stuck.  The plot can't move on ahead or it's set off in more directions than a catherine wheel.  The reason behind your plot block is the problem/career/best friend - they don't fit comfortably with the current situation.  So you puzzle away, trying desperately to work out how you can get round the situation but not succeeding.  

You have a hangover!  Something you randomly chose in the past is now affecting your writing in the present.   

I've just been stuck in hangover hell, having made a character married.  This meant that further down the plot line he had to have a wife in tow. This wife was causing me problems - it wasn't plausible that she'd turn up all of a sudden, but she existed so neither was it plausible that she wasn't around.  Then - ping! Light bulb moment.  Just because the character was married in the first draft didn't mean he had to be married in the second, especially as I'd rewritten him pretty much from scratch.  The wife could go.  End of problem.  

Sometimes it's really hard to spot hangovers.  You get stuck in a particular way of thinking and it's hard to challenge yourself and ask, Why can't X do Y?  Why does Z have to be female?  Why can't A do that?  Why does B have to be a teacher?  Why does C have to be tall? Why can't D be unable to swim?

In A Single to Rome I struggled through the first draft with lots of hangovers and a hefty headache to match.  Then I realised that Teresa was doing two plot functions and could become Teresa and another character - Olivia.  Judith didn't have to be female, and became Bob (who hooked up with the newly created Olivia).  Natalie's original job got the chop and she became a lawyer, which both raised the stakes and solved a couple of plot problems.  

So if you get stuck, check that it's not because of some hangover from the past.  It may have been the answer to a problem then, but that doesn't mean it still is now.  Challenge your previous decisions and check you haven't got a writing hangover.  

And if you have, the solution is straightforward. You wrote it: you can delete it.  It's as simple as that.

Playing Around with What If continued

So here's a possible route...

She likes her job

Colleague gets promoted/new boss comes in

She doesn't like the new regime

Starts job hunting

Finds new job hard to find

Clashes with new boss

Leaves job

This has lots of negativity inherent in it - she doesn't like the situation, although at least she's fighting against it.  Lots of conflict is good - I can picture some dramatic scenes. But her character isn't particularly confrontational, and part of her character arc over the course of the book is to wise up. Here's an alternative route...

She likes her job

Hears of new job 

Decides to apply

Gets interview

Gets job offer

Leaves old job

Starts new job

I month trial period

New company hit by recession, can't make post permanent

Old job has either gone to someone else, or not hiring because of recession

Now she's unemployed 

There are lots of potential scenes here as she goes through the job process, which is good as I can weave them in with the other plot strands.  I'm slightly concerned about timing - this process would plausibly take at least 2 months if not 3, but I can always get round that if the route is interesting. It's certainly more positive in feel than the first one, but there's less conflict.  Now I'm asking questions to see if there's potential for conflict.

How does she hear about the job?

Through an ad is the least interesting, through a friend has more potential for blame later on.

What makes her decide to take the job?

More money - always plausible.  More status, ditto.  There could be some issue at work also.

Is the job a change in career direction? Or is it a promotion?

If it's a promotion, she will have different feelings about the new job - success, moving up the ladder - than if it's a change of direction.  She's not that ambitious a person, so a new direction is more plausible with her character than going for promotion. 

I'm playing around with a couple of routes, seeing how they pan out, where they fit with the other characters, how the choices my character makes fit in with her personality.  I'm looking for a plausible route that gives my characters lots of potential action.  I thought I'd cracked it with one route, but then realised it wasn't consistent with another character's motivation.  

Hey ho - it's back to What If for me. 

Playing Around with What If

I've come to a tricky moment in my current novel.  I've written a lot of it, then realised that I needed to start earlier, so I'm writing the beginning section at the moment.  This means I know where I need my character to end up but I'm not 100% sure how she's going to get there.  In this case, she needs to leave her job - but why? and how?

I'm playing What If.  

There are usually limited choices for characters at any one time.  So I'm going to start with Does my character like her current job, or not?  That's two options. I write them both down on a piece of paper.  Then I choose one of the options.  What if she likes her job?  Why would she leave it?

what if she was fired?

what if she was offered a better job elsewhere?

what if she was persuaded to apply for another job?

what if she did something dreadful and had to leave?

what if she had an affair with a colleague and was forced out?

what if she's inherited some money and doesn't need to work?

what if her family need her to return home?

Each What If suggests more questions, more What Ifs...for example, why would she be fired?  I write them all down, seeing where they lead me.

Then I do the same process with the other starting option: What if she doesn't like her job? There the prompt has to be, Why hasn't she left it so far?

what if she has no qualifications?

what if she's trying to apply for lots of jobs, but can't get interviews?

what if it's only recently she hasn't liked her job?

what if a work colleague has been promoted to boss and is now making her life hell?

I like this option the least, because it puts her in a negative or victim situation.  I'd rather my character was making positive choices.  On the other hand, I want her to move forwards so the last couple of options could work.  

On the first option, I'm aware that Natalie in A Single to Rome loves her job but gets fired, so that's not a route I'm keen on. 

I'll show a possible route tomorrow, along with the questions/possibilities it suggests.

Problem : Solution : Problem

If you're stuck with your plot try this: think of it in terms of problems and solutions.  

Take Cinderella, for example.  She wants to go to the ball, but doesn't have any kit - that's her problem.  The solution?  The Fairy Godmother provides it.  But - and this is the clever bit - the solution comes with a problem attached.  So, the kit's going to vanish at midnight - Problem.  

Cinders goes to the ball, falls in love so forgets about the time - Problem.  Solution - she runs away, before telling the Prince how to find her  - Problem. 

The Prince wants to find her - Problem - but all there is is the slipper - Solution - but who does it fit? - Problem - get everybody to try it on - Solution - but the ugly sisters keep Cinders away - Problem - until she pushes herself forward/Buttons pushes her forward and tries it on - Solution.  

In real life we have problems, and our solutions usually sort them out for us.  I want to avoid X (problem) so I cross the road (solution).  However, in fiction, our solutions can't work out.  I cross the road (solution) and get run over (problem). Try looking at your story line.  If too many of your solutions work for your characters, then it's not going to be a compelling read.  

Object Impossible

I settled down to watch Mission Impossible III with my son the other day, thinking it would be a nice bonding sort of thing to do. OK, so I haven't watched MI I or II but I hoped it wouldn't be too hard to keep up. I needn't have worried because There Is No Plot.

Somebody has taken an object called The Rabbit's Foot. It's never established what it is, why anyone wants it, who the baddies are or what they're going to do with it should they get their filthy mitts on it, but hey that didn't bother the film makers. Instead there's an awful lot of running around waving guns, gadgets, explosions, people looking at computer screens with narrowed eyes, fast cars and slinky women in dresses with no backs, but - Oops, they forgot the plot.

Well, actually they didn't. At the very end, someone says cheerfully, oh yes, what is it we were trying to do? and some one else equally cheerfully says, it doesn't matter and they all go off and live happily ever after. So the film makers knew all along there wasn't a plot and didn't care, even pointing it out in a post-modern ironic sort of way. Something similar happened in the most recent James Bond film: lots of big bangs, oil tankers going whoosh, Daniel Craig without a shirt, the usual - but there wasn't a story.

Stories are not collections of random events, they are linked and have meaning for the characters. Cinderella searches for love, and finds it. King Arthur learns that even the best can be betrayed by those closest to them. The third little pig learns that persistence and diligence pay off, and the first and second little pigs learn not to laugh at others. The Big Bad Wolf doesn't learn, and gets roasted down the chimney as a result.

When writing always go back to two questions - what does my character learn from these events, and how have things changed for them? That's your story.

Planning a Novel

Everybody seems to be talking about novel planning at the moment - perhaps it's Spring coming and we're all hopping about grabbing twigs to build our novels. Currently I feel it's more like clutching at straws, but this is what I do...

Round 1. Start with an idea of a background or two. It's got to be either something I already know about, or can access research material easily, or fancy doing some research on.

Round 2. Think of a few good plot points to use as markers. Woman starts affair, woman ends affair, woman blackmailed by lover.

Round 3. Start thinking about the answers to the questions the plot points pose - why does she have an affair? who with? does her lover have a partner? why do they want an affair?

Round 4. Start writing.

At some point I'm going to get stuck - it might be 10,000 words in, it might be 50,000 words in. But I know roughly where I'm heading for, and what plot threads I'm carrying.

Round 5. Get out some index cards. Write one for the last scene I've written. Write one for the scene I'm aiming for (which is the next big plot point eg they break up or he comes back).

Round 6. Lay the two cards out on the bed with a big space in-between and stare at them very very hard. What I'm doing, apart from scaring the cat, is trying to work out a logical way to get from one point to another.

Round 7. As I get ideas for linking scenes, I write them out on index cards and cautiously place them between the start and end point. Using index cards means I can shuffle the ideas around more easily or add bits. I might get ideas for extra scenes that come earlier or later, and they can be noted on cards as well.

Round 8. When I'm happy with my linking scenes, I write them up as a list and attach it to the end of my novel for reference.

Round 9. With the index cards by my side I get writing.

Write until stuck, at which point repeat Rounds 5-9.

I'll repeat this process until I get to the end of the novel. As I write more - I'm writing Novel No 6 at the moment - my forward planning gets scrappier and scrappier and the bedroom and office are littered with scrawled index cards. I do wish I was a planner - it would feel as if there was a safety net underneath me - but the two occasions I plotted out the novel from start to finish before I began writing, I completely lost interest and never finished them.