The weirdest thing, I must record it. I've been struggling with the final scenes in the book, not the denouement which I wrote a while ago, but the last arc of the action. One of the things that's been a real problem for me is this character who keeps going into hiding. I know why she's hiding. It's because I haven't quite got her motivation nailed down. I despatched my heroes to her house earlier this week to speak with her about various matters of grave importance to the plot, and she wasn't there. I didn't know where she was, and neither did they. Then this morning I was writing a different scene with another, entirely separate, character and suddenly - the woman's scent was in the scene. The heroes followed it and they're about to find her, hiding where I had no idea she'd be. I didn't plan it this way but it makes perfect sense. I don't recommend this way of writing - by the seat of your pants, in freefall from the plot - but golly it's exciting. To have found her, at last, and like this. Right, now to see what she's got to say for herself..!
Friday 20 June 2008
There she is
The weirdest thing, I must record it. I've been struggling with the final scenes in the book, not the denouement which I wrote a while ago, but the last arc of the action. One of the things that's been a real problem for me is this character who keeps going into hiding. I know why she's hiding. It's because I haven't quite got her motivation nailed down. I despatched my heroes to her house earlier this week to speak with her about various matters of grave importance to the plot, and she wasn't there. I didn't know where she was, and neither did they. Then this morning I was writing a different scene with another, entirely separate, character and suddenly - the woman's scent was in the scene. The heroes followed it and they're about to find her, hiding where I had no idea she'd be. I didn't plan it this way but it makes perfect sense. I don't recommend this way of writing - by the seat of your pants, in freefall from the plot - but golly it's exciting. To have found her, at last, and like this. Right, now to see what she's got to say for herself..!
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6 comments:
All my plots are freefall! I never know what will happen next - welcome to the gang ...
:))
A
xxx
Blimey, Anne, how do you stand the switchback tension? I nearly died of nerves this last week. :)
But writing is the only part of my life that's not regimented to the point of lunacy, Sarah!
:))
A
xxx
Ah! Now I can believe you're not an alien, Anne. I was wondering there, just for a minute.
Wow, I always heard about this process of novel-writing, but to go through it with you, Sarah, is amazing! I can't, as a short story writer, quite feel how it must be, it doesn't seem the same at all. So cool! Enjoy the tension!
Well, Tania, this isn't how I planned it, remotely. But it is exciting. I'm delighted to have you along for the ride, too, and so enthusiastic.
The usual advice is not to put pen to paper without a plot in place, especially when it comes to crime. Having said that, I remember reading about a best-selling female crime writer (can't remember which one) who refuses to produce synopses for her new books on the basis that she doesn't know what's going to happen from one chapter to the next until she writes it. She described the process like opening a new door each time she wrote a scene, and seeing where it led her, all doors being closed and unknown at the outset. Scary but exciting, I'll bet. I imagine it takes a lot of faith in your ability to weave a story - and a genuine relish for editing, going back and making all the threads fit together - to write that way over the length of an entire novel.
If I pull it off this time around (and that's a big IF because first I have to be happy and then whole hosts of other people have to be convinced by it) then I think I'll be tempted to write the next novel this way too. Just because it's such a buzz.
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