An organic writer's dilemma
Dec. 18th, 2007 02:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pjthompsonI've been doing a lot of research reading for a novel I started seven years ago, one that got 70k in before it went belly up. I was mystified at the time why it ceased to go, but after flogging on for awhile I realized it just wasn't going to happen. Venus In Transit had good worldbuilding, some characters who hold up even after all this time, and was written fairly well. I still felt that way rereading it last summer (although I didn't feel the same way after reading other older stuff last summer). One thing was clear seven years on, though: the structure and themes had gone south on me. That's why it stopped cooperating.
Mostly, that was my fault, but partly it was the fault of my loquacious characters (which of course means it was all my fault since the characters came out of me, but it's no fun to state it that way). These characters all have such a lot of interesting stories to tell me, and whereas those stories may indeed be interesting, they do make the plot wander around rather to excess. Sometimes when you're a character-based writer it's difficult to tell the difference between interesting plot evolution and pointless tangent—but I digress. Ha ha.
Research reading. The more I do of it, the more I see the storyline firming up, the themes come hoving back over the horizon. It's giving me a focus, reacquainting me with the through line of my narrative. Good things, all. But there are still character issues.
The thing is, when this novel went bupkes on me, I decided to write a series of short stories set in the same mythological county in rural Southern California—Dos Lunas County. That was okay because it helped round out the feel of the place. The trouble was that the one character who appears in all the stories, JK Montmorency, has over the years acquired some of the characteristics of the hero of Venus In Transit, Sam Dunphy. Their characters aren't the same at all, but the magic mojo that Sam worked in Venus has become the magic mojo that JK works in the Dos Lunas stories. So I tried grafting a new magic mojo onto Sam. That sort of worked, but not really. Because Sam's new mojo still harkens back to one of the deeper aspects of JK's story.
JK's been telling me for awhile that he needed a novel of his own. I sort of worked out a loose plot for one—but it never gathered enough steam to go. He has a guest appearance in Sam's novel, but I run the risk of having dueling mojos there. I thought I'd worked out a device for dealing with that but it's feeling increasingly device-y these days. I even thought I could bring the dueling mojos more to the front, have them be a plot focus—but then I'd be writing a completely different novel from the one I started to write. That might not be a bad thing because the book is going to have to be rewritten anyway, but that storyline would throw all my nice, newly invigorated themes into disorder.
The obvious thing would be to replace Sam with JK, but as I said, they aren't the same character. Sam has a breadth of specialized knowledge that definitely is necessary for this story; Sam deserves his own novel; Sam's love interest, Marian, and co-narrator just wouldn't work with JK.
"Your characters aren't real people," a writer acquaintance once said to me. "You're in control and can make them do whatever you want them to do."
With all due respect, I don't think so. They're not puppets anymore, haven't been for a long time now. All that loquaciousness? Even if I never use it in any story, it's still there in the background giving them a dimensionality that has become difficult to violate. It has an is-ness rather than just being a collection of facts about some made up person. These characters aren't so easy to boss around anymore, and I'm not sure I'd want to write characters who were just puppets, anyway.
The trick I've got to master is the art of persuasion: getting them to give up the goods on themselves yet again, tell me more stuff so I can see a possible new path to the waterfall. The only way I know how to do that is to keep reading, keep cogitating, and keep writing. Gradually, they'll peek out of the ferns they've been hiding behind and start incluing me. Then I can start the campaign of convincing them to actually walk down that new path.
Mostly, that was my fault, but partly it was the fault of my loquacious characters (which of course means it was all my fault since the characters came out of me, but it's no fun to state it that way). These characters all have such a lot of interesting stories to tell me, and whereas those stories may indeed be interesting, they do make the plot wander around rather to excess. Sometimes when you're a character-based writer it's difficult to tell the difference between interesting plot evolution and pointless tangent—but I digress. Ha ha.
Research reading. The more I do of it, the more I see the storyline firming up, the themes come hoving back over the horizon. It's giving me a focus, reacquainting me with the through line of my narrative. Good things, all. But there are still character issues.
The thing is, when this novel went bupkes on me, I decided to write a series of short stories set in the same mythological county in rural Southern California—Dos Lunas County. That was okay because it helped round out the feel of the place. The trouble was that the one character who appears in all the stories, JK Montmorency, has over the years acquired some of the characteristics of the hero of Venus In Transit, Sam Dunphy. Their characters aren't the same at all, but the magic mojo that Sam worked in Venus has become the magic mojo that JK works in the Dos Lunas stories. So I tried grafting a new magic mojo onto Sam. That sort of worked, but not really. Because Sam's new mojo still harkens back to one of the deeper aspects of JK's story.
JK's been telling me for awhile that he needed a novel of his own. I sort of worked out a loose plot for one—but it never gathered enough steam to go. He has a guest appearance in Sam's novel, but I run the risk of having dueling mojos there. I thought I'd worked out a device for dealing with that but it's feeling increasingly device-y these days. I even thought I could bring the dueling mojos more to the front, have them be a plot focus—but then I'd be writing a completely different novel from the one I started to write. That might not be a bad thing because the book is going to have to be rewritten anyway, but that storyline would throw all my nice, newly invigorated themes into disorder.
The obvious thing would be to replace Sam with JK, but as I said, they aren't the same character. Sam has a breadth of specialized knowledge that definitely is necessary for this story; Sam deserves his own novel; Sam's love interest, Marian, and co-narrator just wouldn't work with JK.
"Your characters aren't real people," a writer acquaintance once said to me. "You're in control and can make them do whatever you want them to do."
With all due respect, I don't think so. They're not puppets anymore, haven't been for a long time now. All that loquaciousness? Even if I never use it in any story, it's still there in the background giving them a dimensionality that has become difficult to violate. It has an is-ness rather than just being a collection of facts about some made up person. These characters aren't so easy to boss around anymore, and I'm not sure I'd want to write characters who were just puppets, anyway.
The trick I've got to master is the art of persuasion: getting them to give up the goods on themselves yet again, tell me more stuff so I can see a possible new path to the waterfall. The only way I know how to do that is to keep reading, keep cogitating, and keep writing. Gradually, they'll peek out of the ferns they've been hiding behind and start incluing me. Then I can start the campaign of convincing them to actually walk down that new path.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-18 11:47 pm (UTC)Maybe this one just needs more time to simmer, until the characters finish evolving, to mix two metaphors horribly.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-18 11:57 pm (UTC)Yes. Whenever I try to make characters behave like puppets that's the feel I get. It feels like a hammer falling.
Maybe this one just needs more time to simmer, until the characters finish evolving, to mix two metaphors horribly.
I suspect that's the case. It feels like it's getting close—but I've thought that before.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-19 02:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-19 01:46 pm (UTC)I think I'm going to have to ignore the word count for a few days and think seriously about who my characters are and what they want before I can move on.
Good luck - sounds like you have a fascinating project and all sorts of great stories to tell! :)
no subject
Date: 2007-12-20 07:03 pm (UTC)Yep, writing as an act of persuasion. :-)
no subject
Date: 2007-12-20 07:06 pm (UTC)In my experience, after a certain point the characters just know better than the writer. ;-) They can be quite stubborn about enforcing their will. When that happens I just have to let it go for awhile--sometimes a few days, a few weeks, sometimes much longer--and let my subconscious work it out while my conscious mind works on something else. Ultimately, the word count isn't as important as letting the process work through me. I can always work on other projects while the characters battle it out in the back brain. YMMV.