When the Plot goes wrong…

Posted on by Henrietta Stackpole

What do you do when the plot goes wrong?

It’s a bit like when cream splits, the plot doesn’t thicken. This recently happened to me; our plots fly by the seat of my pants and one of them came tumbling down three-quarters through the first draft. Let me explain, one of the characters was biographical, they really had existed and we began to become uncomfortable, the way the plot was going, that I could end up libelling or misrepresenting a real person and really upsetting, unnecessarily, relatives of the real person. Is this important? Well I think so, we are not engaged in writing a biography of someone in which any opinions or events expressed carry (it is to be hoped) the weight of evidence, in which case, fair game. This is a piece of fiction, a piece of make-believe, solely an invention. So what do you do?

Firstly, we analysed the situation and decided that to leave the biographical and named character in under the present situation was unfair and unethical. To leave them in but to play them down would render the plot’s structure and surprises innocuous. Was there another route?
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We found one, it means a major rewrite of parts in order to render the same character as a child of fiction, with a new name, occupation, history, relatives and most importantly  a reason to exist. It was quite a wrench to come to this conclusion and we delayed longer than we should. We have lost valuable time which I doubt we can make up but at least we should be happier with the result. If you end up with this type of problem I recommend grasping the nettle early on, the quicker you do, the quicker you will find the dock leaves!

 

How do you decide who to kill off next?

Posted on by Henrietta Stackpole

This is a decision which crops up maybe several times in a sensation, crime, mystery or adventure novel. The other day I reached a point in my current work where I knew there was to be a surprise death… but who?

If you are the kind of writer who has a complete plan before you start your first draft then you already know the answer but if you are like me, one who has, when they set out on the journey to final buff-up, a vague plot, a vague arc and an even vaguer end then you are faced with deciding who to get rid of on more than one occasion. Even those who pre-plot must surprise themselves sometimes with a change of plan, especially if their novel is character-driven. My characters frequently creep up behind me and surprise me with a tap on the shoulder and a whispered, ‘Psssst, I’m not really like that, I think we should do it this way, don’t you?’

How do you decide?

Sometimes its obvious – and if it is I think again. Bumping somebody off must surely be something of a surprise, if not, then you are losing dramatic effect (I suppose there must be an example somewhere which contradicts this – but I can’t recall it). So firstly, ignore the obvious.

What I do is write down a list of all my characters, right down to all the ones who don’t even have names because they are just part of the cast of extras. Then alongside their names I write out a reason why they should NOT be eliminated. Some are, of course, indispensable; after all you are going to have a difficult time with the ending if you have your protagonist poisoned three-quarters the way through – perhaps not impossible but very difficult I would say.

At the end of compiling this list I have a list of characters who would certainly not be killed off and  about the same number with ‘possibly’ written  alongside their names. In addition I have the category – ‘someone else not yet in the book’ and two other alternatives – ‘no death but some big revelation’ and ‘something I haven’t thought of yet.’

Now I wrote down all names in the ‘possibly’ category and add underneath what their loss would mean to, the MAIN characters, the workings of the drama, the reader and the mystery, secret or case under investigation.

Some examples of what I came up with were:

‘Personal loss, loss to business but no loss to the case.’

‘Personal loss to protagonist, practical loss, loss to reader as he is such a lovable character – but on the dramatic side would be a real shocker.’

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‘Loss of valuable witness, not a heartbreaker but could be built up into a short term one and a triumph for the villain.’

‘Too inconsequential.’

‘Low impact.’

‘Loss of witness, triumph for villain but mechanically far too implausible.’

‘Someone else not yet in it? Depends on what crops up.’ That’s definitely a ‘flying too close to the sun’ risk but one which could lead to an exciting plot change or disruption!

I still haven’t decided who it will be but have narrowed it down yet again. As I am about 75000 words through a 90000+ novel I need someone whose death will do the villain some good and likewise I need someone who has a significant effect on the overall case in hand. Of my eleven possibilities four fit the bill to varying degrees and also there still remains the option of introducing somebody new for a brief cameo role! In the end it feels like I will make a decision on the basis of an emotional decision, it just has to be someone the reader has a good feel about and as such becomes a great triumph for the villain – in other words it will be someone I will feel sad to lose.

How do YOU decide?

As it happened I ended up killing off the VILLAIN! But she wasn’t the real villain, she was working for others with greater power, that we didn’t know about.

 

Introduction

Posted on by Henrietta Stackpole

My editing agent, Jimpy, thinks it’s important that we establish a reasonably regular series of blogs on the trials, tribulations and tortures of novel writing in the hope that some may be vaguely helpful and others of moderate inspiration. It all smacks too much of arrogance to me but if my musings help at all I will be glad of it.

In any event, Jimpy is probably correct, being, at least, in the land of the breathing whereas I am just a figment of his imagination.

We have decided to move forward on the publication of my first novel (for over 130 years?) through the e-book route. The principle reason for this decision is:

TIME TO MARKET

as Jimpy puts it – why wait six months to a year when you can publish through Amazon, Kobo and Smashwords within weeks of final polish.

Even when we have all the facilities to keep in touch with loved ones, the time generic cialis prices that we have is just not enough. It boosts generic viagra blood circulation to the reproductive organs. buy online cialis Chiropractic is an all-natural healthcare practice, which focuses on hands-on techniques, natural therapies, proper diet and nutrition, and the overall health of an individual, who takes the medicine. For online customers, reduced rates of medications are often introduced by online viagra store the generic pharmacies.

Using the helpful links on publishing which you will see in the sidebar to the left we came to the conclusion that an initial launch on Kindle alone and perhaps with KDP Select is the way we will go. Then after the required period we shall move on to Smashwords and Kobo to cover the non-Amazon market – and now that you can publish on Nook in the UK we will consider that too.

Depending on the reception we get we may well move on to seeking a literary agent and/or using the Print-on-Demand route. Jimpy has some experience with this latter method over ten years since and assures me it has moved forward in leaps and bounds and has become quite a mature product now.

If you are thinking about publishing yourself you can do

no better than to look at the three publishing links

in the sidebar.