I completed my first draft of Truce or Consequences on October 1st. With NaNoWriMo right around the corner, I've had to launch myself straight into the preparation phase of my next book with no time off.
It seems appropriate to pause for one moment and celebrate my second novel. No, it isn't finished, but, as I wrote above, I have a completed draft. In December, I'll be able to come back to it and begin editing. If you're a writer, you know how amazing that is. Staring at a blank page is much harder than fixing problems in a manuscript. (I don't mean to imply that making changes is easy or fast, but it's a lot easier to edit something than nothing.)All right, moment over. Time to move forward. My next book... I've had an idea I've been kicking around for quite some time, based solely on an idea for a title, The Compendium of Curiosities and Impractical Magic. The last few evenings have been spent trying to turn that title idea into a theme and a plot, and most importantly, I'm trying to create some characters that fit into the world and will drive that plot. This is the first time I've ever started from something as vague as a title. As I've posted before, I usually start with the characters.
In an effort to bring as much together as quickly as possible, I've been re-reading my copies of the "Save the Cat!" books by Blake Snyder. While the focus of these books is on screenwriting, I agree with the woman who turned me on to these books, the storytelling aspects are just as applicable to a book as they are to a movie.
To my surprise, I've spent over five days agonizing (no, I'm not kidding, I'm talking about serious pain) over what kind of story I'm going to be telling. Clearly, my genre is Fantasy. But what kind of a story is it? Is it a quest story? A wish-fulfillment tale? A story of friendship/love? Or a rite of passage?
Those are my top four choices, but there are other possibilities. Overall, I tend to read romantic fiction and, thus far, that's what I write. Logically, unless I plan to stray from my natural inclination, a love story seems to be the choice. This is probably why I'm struggling. Because I look at the scenes I've imagined and keep thinking that this is really either a wish-fulfillment tale or a rite of passage story. There's no reason I can't have a love story intertwined, but I just don't think it's the main focus.
So that leaves me twisting and worrying. Should I change the story (rebuild the characters I've already played around with and upend the plot) or should I stick to what is already simmering in the back of my mind and shape it into a rite of passage or wish-fulfillment tale?
Blake's advice, at least as far as I interpret it, is to give up things that don't work. I can almost hear him add "and don't look back." If I follow that advice, then my move is to pick a story type (I guess I'm leaning toward rite of passage) and start shaping what I've already created so it will work and discard anything that isn't fitting right.
Hmm, how disappointing. I really hoped that by just writing this out, I'd have some kind of epiphany about what I should do. Truly, if I'm to be ready for NaNoWriMo on November 1st, I should have my logline by now and be working on character sketches and maybe even the storyboard. I've only 21 more days to flesh this thing out before I start writing. Oh, who am I kidding? There's nothing to flesh out yet. Not even a choice of story.
This blog post has gone downhill very fast. From celebration to a mild tone of panic. Perhaps even strong panic. I need to make some decisions today.
10:31 P.M. Deadlines really are magic.
Feeling the pressure helped me make one decision. I'm keeping the characters, just reshaping them a little. My protagonist (yet to be named, poor thing) will be the proprietor of a used bookstore in a small town that boasts of the small town feel, while having a University just outside the city boundaries. The antagonist will be a friend of the protagonist who will initially aid her with her quest to understand the strange book (exact means of acquiring the book to be determined) in her possession but will later discourage her exploration and use of the magic within the book under the guise of protecting her from harm (while in reality stunting her growth).
I've many twists and turns yet to plot out and I can't go much further until I pick my story. Just these decisions however make me more confident that I will figure this out. It's a matter of going deeper. Looking much harder at the conflict. On the surface, it now feels like a story of friendship (and the pitfalls of thinking you know what's best for others). But, I will delve deeper... I did use the word quest.
Onward... to the logline!
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