Scattered threads, a dilemma

[MstrTal]

So as with everyone here I have been working on my own little writing project and I feel I have been making some progress. However now that I have gotten serious with it and been devoting some hard energy to it things have taken an odd twist. Where with my past efforts I would take an idea, do world building, craft a bare-bones outline and then struggle with writing from start to finish getting sidetracked and never finishing this WIP has gone along a odd route.

I had my inspiration and did a massive amount of world building. Now however I have no outline I have these flashes of what I want and an overall goal. I sit down with my characters and I start writing referring as needed to my huge compendium of world building notes that I add to as needed. I have actually gotten farther than ever before and things are coming together nicely.

Except now I have all these scattered threads. All written in the first person from the POV of different characters in different parts of the country who have yet to meet or tie into the main underlying story. So I am wondering has anyone else ever had this problem and if so how have you dealt with it?

 

[Anne Martin]

It sounds to me like you've over-written your characters. You won't truly know them until you write them into the story. You know your world, and your characters, but not your story. It's time to forget all that. Instead you've got to answer some simple questions.

1) Where does your story begin? - with what action (leave the characters for now)
2) What is the conflict/goal? (Which character is most affected by it?)
3) How is it resolved? (this may change as you write)

Just answer the first two, then sit down and write a scene. Forget about backstory for now. Don't even think about incorporating your world yet. Let that come organically. Don't write a synopsis yet either. Just stick a few of your characters into the action and see what happens.

You may eventually dump what you write, but knowing the beginning intimately is half the battle and it may spark some ideas. It's the spark you are looking for now, not a fully-drawn epic.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I pretty much agree with everything Anne said.

Particularly her #2 point. Once you know who that character is, concentrate on telling his or her story. You can add in the other viewpoints as they become important.

 

[HareBrain]

I see the scattered first-person chunks as more world-building, really. If you don't know how those characters tie in to the main story, how are you sure they even do? Forget them all for the moment and go with Anne's 1&2.

 

[MstrTal]

Thank you for the advice those are some points I had not considered and will keep in mind.

I guess however after looking over my first post I rambled a bit. The thing is I have been writing scenes.

Let me try and make my dilemma a bit more clear. After being struck with inspiration I did this massive amount of world building. Now as I sit down to write I end up opening my WIP Word file labeled "Book" and in it are a number of filed each devoted to one of my characters. Depending on how the muse strikes me I will open one of these sub-files and this characters story will evolve and lengthen.

So now I have 3 or 4 files for my characters that are turning into their own little novels that have yet to converge to the main plot I was originally going for.

I mean I am enjoying seeing where it is going but I don't really want to scrap my original idea as I will then loose my "endgame" if you catch my meaning. It is almost like my characters are trying to write their own separate novels with each as the main protagonist.

 

[Malloriel]

I know exactly what you mean, MstrTal. Personally, I let the threads dangle, because as I go along (I still have world building as well as story building to do, mind) those loose ends end up finding things with which to connect, making an even more intricate tapestry. I've only recently settled on the POV character for the central arc, but in order for her story to be told, I have to know the stories of, at minimum, fifteen other characters. These individual characters could each have trilogies (and in the case of one, a completely separate series) dedicated to just their adventures and evolutions. I plan on writing them. I don't plan on sending them for publication before the main story, but their personal tales are just as interesting and adventurous as the story around which they orbit, and want to be told for themselves.

I see nothing wrong with working on several character stories, picking up loose threads as you find them, because you never know how or when they'll work their way back into the main project, and what that may bring. Giving them attention doesn't detract from your end game, in my opinion, as long as you don't allow them to take over.

 

[RJM Corbet]

It's back to the same old thing. What's the story? Doesn't that come first? Or isn't there one? Sorry, I know I'm being a little rough. Tough love. But if you HAVE got a definite story to tell, and you know the ending of it, then just go with the characters and let them take you there. If you don't know what's going to happen next, neither will the reader, so it will be a good book.

It may not be a coherent book at first -- you may write the same scene from six different angles. It may be way too wordy at first and it may be taking a lot longer to write than you originally expected, but doesn't it always, and you can prune when its done. That's the easy part. Thing is just to persevere. You may put it away for months, even years, and then come back to it with something.

As mentioned in another thread, 'The Alexandria Quartet' by Lawrence Durrell is composed of four books, each about one particular character and each of whom perceive and interpret the same events completely differently. It works

 

[Anne Martin]

MstrTal, I confess to being in a similar situation right now, except that I have my world, a main character, a nebulous (at the moment) group of baddies, an "innocent" antagonist, and a completely unformed story. I keep getting bogged down in details, like she falls asleep on a wooden park bench which springs to life, sprouting branches and even fruit while she slumbers. She eats the fruit that contains a deadly poison to which she is inexplicably immune (she gave it life). I've got the beginning, and I know how the conflict is resolved, but I'm not sure what the conflict really is yet, and that's a big bummer. The baddies want to kill her, but I haven't figured out why (specifically). It's something about closing worm-holes between worlds, and she is the unknowing "key" to one of them. (I'll post the beginning for critique when I feel confident with it.)

I guess what I'm saying is that it happens to all of us, and even those of us who have a method to get out of it sometimes struggle. Just focus on what is important and let the story write itself.

 

[RJM Corbet]

MstrTal, I confess to being in a similar situation right now, except that I have my world, a main character, a nebulous (at the moment) group of baddies, an "innocent" antagonist, and a completely unformed story. I keep getting bogged down in details, like she falls asleep on a wooden park bench which springs to life, sprouting branches and even fruit while she slumbers. She eats the fruit that contains a deadly poison to which she is inexplicably immune (she gave it life). I've got the beginning, and I know how the conflict is resolved, but I'm not sure what the conflict really is yet, and that's a big bummer. The baddies want to kill her, but I haven't figured out why (specifically). It's something about closing worm-holes between worlds, and she is the unknowing "key" to one of them. (I'll post the beginning for critique when I feel confident with it.)

I guess what I'm saying is that it happens to all of us, and even those of us who have a method to get out of it sometimes struggle. Just focus on what is important and let the story write itself.

Well, it's got my attention already.

Motives for murder?
1) To keep someone quiet.
2) To get them out of the way. Political assassination.
3) To inherit.
4) To punish and/or to make an example.
5) To save them from future suffering,

There may be others. But not that many ...

 

[Jake Reynolds]

Add in hatred, psychosis and revenge...

 

[Anne Martin]

Well ... the planet (Hel) she is transported to (through the worm-hole), is about to be swallowed by a black hole - soon is a relative term in the history of the universe -> in less than a million years. They are on the cusp of the event horizon, and their sun has passed it, so that the black hole has become their source of heat. Being trailed by millions of stars, their night is brighter than their days (which have lengthened to 45 Earth days as the spin of the planet slows).

Their civilization is likely to expire before the million years is up anyway, but their plan was to target and colonize other inhabited planets connected to theirs through a series of worm-holes, spawned naturally by the black hole. They have settled many suitable worlds (including Earth - they are our homosapien ancestors), and now when the time to emigrate has drawn near, the people are reluctant to leave, since they will be dead by the time the planet dies anyway. Not everyone can pass through the worm-holes (only biologically sympathetic), and they must be accompanied by the "key" (from the destination).

As Hel nears the black hole the worm-holes have begun to close. (That is why they must act now.) Earth and one other planet are the prime choices for resettlement.

There is one other way out that no one has considered. There are two special keys who represent the yin and yang soul of Hel. My protagonist is the yin key (Aba, the life-giving element). The yang key is controlled by the group of baddies and has crossed from the other prime settlement candidate (yet to be named). I haven't decided whether the baddies are from Earth (trying to keep the resettlement from happening), from the third planet (to make certain it is chosen instead of Earth), Hel (for some yet unexplained reason), or another planet (for some sinister plot).

So the current possibilities are:

1. Earth's NIMBY fear (we are crowded enough as it is, and we don't trust them anyway)
2. Desire for power (to control Hel's advanced technology)
3. Fear of change (we don't want to leave Hel, or let's keep our great achievements to ourselves; they won't understand)
4. Some other corrupt plot (control/power/revenge/hatred/jealousy)

It could also be a combination of these - an unholy alliance.

 

[MstrTal]

MstrTal, I confess to being in a similar situation right now, except that I have my world, a main character, a nebulous (at the moment) group of baddies, an "innocent" antagonist, and a completely unformed story. I keep getting bogged down in details, like she falls asleep on a wooden park bench which springs to life, sprouting branches and even fruit while she slumbers. She eats the fruit that contains a deadly poison to which she is inexplicably immune (she gave it life). I've got the beginning, and I know how the conflict is resolved, but I'm not sure what the conflict really is yet, and that's a big bummer. The baddies want to kill her, but I haven't figured out why (specifically). It's something about closing worm-holes between worlds, and she is the unknowing "key" to one of them. (I'll post the beginning for critique when I feel confident with it.)

I guess what I'm saying is that it happens to all of us, and even those of us who have a method to get out of it sometimes struggle. Just focus on what is important and let the story write itself.

YES!

This is my exact situation and worded so much more eloquently. Though in my case I have an immortal teenager from the Roaring 20s who grew up in an asylum and used as an experimental play thing by a bunch of cryptids. A man who wakes up 3 days after he dies in the city morgue missing both his eyes and lacking the memory of the last 49 days yet perfectly able to see. A young girl who was infected by a hybrid form of cryptid that is a sort of feline lyconthrope only she is truly cursed and an outcast even among her kind who stumbles into a gang war between cryptids. The end game is trying to stop a cabal of clandestine sorcerers from obtaining an artifact and unleashing an ancient evil bent on destroying mankind out of revenge. All while dodging anti-cryptid hate groups, government agencies and inter-species warfare.

Oh and for the record Cryptid is the designation I am currently going with in my WIP that "normal" humans have labeled supernatural species. So anything paranormal or preternatural. Be it vampire, werewolves, zombies, ghosts, fae or the like and the setting/ genre is contemporary urban fantasy.

Edit: I would also like to say once again Thank you to every one. Just being able to post my concerns and get responses like these and talk out issues I am having is a huge help. Knowing that I am not alone and that others are working their way through similar trials is one of the things I love about this board. Not that people are struggling but that it provides a sense of community and shared effort, even though we are all working on our own individual projects and creative visions. You are all a real boost and encouragement to keep going.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

A dilemma maybe, but also an opportunity. I write as I've said previously, organically - in short I let the story sort of write itself, and often it goes in strange directions.

I have because of this, a lot of novels in various stages of completion, maybe sixty or more, but sometimes what goes wrong can also go very, very right. Sometimes bits and pieces of one novel get cut and pasted into another because I realise that they belonged there all along, just change a name or two and suddenly what was going nowhere is half done.

My advice is to let it ride for a while. Write and let the words flow as they will until you reach a crisis point where the different pieces aren't coming together, and then start the radical editing process. Some may need to be chopped out completely, maybe to become the seeds of new stories. Some may need to be rewritten to another character, another POV. And some when you sit back for a time, may fit perfectly. But whatever the outcome, its only when you hit that crisis point that you'll see where things have to go, and even if you chop out all the other bits that don't fit and get left with lots of holes, you'll know what needs to fit those holes.

Hope that helps.