Current Project: Leg Shaving Leads to Trouble
Status: Not far enough
A couple of you on Facebook commented on my most recent frustration, and since it's my blog post day, I thought this would be a good topic. I've been working on this book "Leg Shaving Leads to Trouble" for a while. It started out with the heroine attending grad school, trying to finish her Ph.D. in anthropology. She meets a guy, gets knocked up on a one-night stand, then he shows up on campus a month later. The complications ensue. I wrote a lot of the book that way, but it just never felt right. It was forced and certainly not a very good read. The ways I had them running into each other weren't working.
Then I changed it so she wasn't studying anthropology, instead, she was a psychology post-bacc trying to earn brownie points to get a professor gig. She with the impact of scent on cancer patients, basically aromatherapy. The school she worked at was very progressive. She got assigned to a project that was going to do research on the effect of scent on sexual desire and relationships. A cosmetic corporation donated money to the school and she got stuck working with the company on this project, and the hero is the company's rep on the project. This worked better because it forced them to see each other much more frequently.
But that still didn't feel quite right. Well I'm taking an alternative medicine class right now and I had an idea. Maybe the heroine should be a practicing aromatherapist and the big boss at the company had a wife with cancer, and maybe the heroine's aromatherapy work really helped her. So he wanted to bring her in to consult on this product line and the research for it. The hero thinks she's a quack and that there's no basis for that type of medicine. Then the conflict, again, ensues.
I like this much, much better. I think this frees me up to play with the heroine a bit, and although the book is primarily heroine-focused, it gives me a nice arc for the hero where he becomes more open-minded, less stubborn, and more accepting about things by the end.
I'm happy with this. But...it means nearly complete rewrites for everything I'd been working on ALREADY rewriting over the past couple of months! All those academic scenes, the power struggles in academic, none of that fits. I need to restart...again. I can't tell if I'm purposely sabotaging myself, or if this really is the way to go. All I know is I'm tired of this plot already! Haha! But I need to finish the darn thing. And for my alt medicine class I chose aromatherapy as my research paper topic, so hopefully that will help out a lot.
Have you ever had to restart a few times as you have gotten ideas you liked better?
11 comments:
Geez, Lisa, I am feeling your pain. You may not have finished this book, but it sounds as though you've written three books. The conflicts, etc. are so different in each -- well, kudos on your dedication!!!!
The new direction sounds good. You'll have to be the judge of whether you want to start again. It sounds as though it will be a whole new beginning but that's not a bad thing, is it? You must be wracking up some serious writing hours and experience during these, er, revivals, and that's good.
As for me...I don't think I've ever written as far into a book and then changes as much as you are. That said, I've written the first three chapters of several books that didn't fly for one reason or another and I hope to goodness I'm not afraid to change things when something better occurs to me. It's one of the reasons the current work is tricky -- those pesky changes....
Good luck, I enjoyed seeing the inside of how you work!
Lisa, I'm assuming you're passionate about the heroine getting her story otherwise why would you keep finding ways to make her story better? You keep changing the premise of the story which means you really don't have a passion for the premise.
What about this story makes you want to write it? What was the spark? That's what you need to focus on to get you though finishing this book- or- scrap the book and work on something you are passionate about. It is much easier to write about something you are excited about. Though I think you have a better plot/premise with this last idea.
Right now I"m struggling with changing the ending of my book. And have discovered through an epiphany about the heroine that I'm going to have to start at the beginning and change some things as well as the last third of the book. Which you all know is NOT my favorite part of writing, but I realize it makes the story better.
So, Lisa, I'm with you in the pain department! LOL I'm still working on how to make the changes I want and hope to get to writing it soon.
good LUck!
Hey, Lisa, you should have come to my plotting workshop on Saturday, lol! :) I emphasized that once you know your characters, what they want, what stops them from getting it and keeps their relationship from moving forward, and once you figure out what they'll learn from their experiences, you have your book. Not that the book writes itself, it's just that the motivations and actions/reactions become so clear that subplots and plot points reveal themselves with a bit less hair pulling. That's the theory, anyway.
You seem to be very caught up in what the characters do rather than who they are. Premise is vital, of course, but getting deeper into your heroine's motivations might help. Create backstory for her that you may not necessarily use in the book, but that YOU know, which will help you determine her actions and reactions, and the reasons behind any conflicts she'll have with the hero.
I really like your third idea. It's intriguing! The power of the olfactory senses is pretty amazing on a number of levels, but the one I'm most familiar with is its effect on memory recall. That can play in beautifully for emotional resonance.
Sorry you're having to rewrite yet again, but think how much you're learning in the process! I believe there's no such thing as wasted words. Even the deleted ones have a purpose. Good luck!
Thanks for your comments! I don't want to quit this book because I've done that a couple of times already and I think it's time I finish one. I've just restarted so many times that I've lost the passion for this one. But I'd hate to start another and not finish it...
Alice, I am definitely wracking up those hours!! Oy...
Paty, I've been thinking about the reason I started it, and the project has changed so much that it no longer holds the same meaning. I like what I began with and I like what I'm going with now, they are just two very different books. I'm glad you had your epiphany, sounds like you'll feel better about your book!
Karen, the most frustrating thing is that I had the book plotted the first two times. Not every little bit, but the main conflicts, turning points, basically a detailed story magic. And it all seemed to work before I started writing, but it just lagged on a bit once I got far into the book. Not just the sagging middle, but it just wasn't an exciting read, the conflict I had developed wasn't strong enough.
And to be honest, I've always been a plotter, and I'm beginning to wonder if that's ruining things a bit for me. The story is so played out in my head once I get to a certain point that the words aren't flowing to finish the story. So maybe I should cut back on the plotting *GASP*
Thank you all for your wonderful comments!!! I have some thinking to do :)
"... The story is so played out in my head once I get to a certain point that the words aren't flowing to finish the story. So maybe I should cut back on the plotting *GASP*..."
Lisa -- When I was just starting to write novels and would get together with my friends, we would talk about this very thing. None of us talked specifics about our books because we had it in our heads we would "talk out" the story either by discussing it or planning it too carefully. It took me years to be able to plot and not ruin things for myself, so this is what I propose (how clever of me to come up with this after you came up with it yourself.)
Start the book over with the new premise and this time, just write. Let it happen. I should have thought of this earlier -- it's kind of how I'm writing this book and it's interesting because I'm pretty sure the reader won't know what's coming next as I barely know. Sure, it means some back and forth and tweaking and a few sleepless nights -- oh, wait, that's the puppy -- but there's something liberating about it, too, and since the other way has failed you, why not give it a try? I have a feeling that by the time you write the book, you've already "written" it and it dies on the fine like too ripe fruit.
Ignore this if it sucks...
"dies on the fine". Huh? VINE. Dies on the vine. Geesh.
I might be the lone dissenting voice here, but I'd seriously consider going with the original, and working your new idea into another book.
What you really have is a conflict problem. You don't have a character problem--you like the heroine in academia, and that's the core of who she is. If you give her a whole new life, are you changing the things you liked the most about her? Is she growing and changing into someone you like MORE or someone you like LESS? If the answer is more, then slash and burn, but if you are really sad to let the academia thing go, then I think you need to return to the initial conflict between hero and heroine and work on that. I think you could fix the conflict so their run ins aren't so forced. What if he's her new TA? In the running for the same fellowship as her? A fellow TA for the same professor, and only one can be recomended for X at the end of the semester? He's an undergrad (returning older student obviously) in her class? Up the professional stakes for her, and I think you might find both your conflict and your mojo.
My two cents. Alice and Paty and Karen all rock too, and slash and burn does have a certain appeal.
Hey, Lisa! Sounds like you're learning a lot about what you don't like about this story--and that's good!
You have lots of good ideas for the heroine and who she is. You have several possible premises.
But I didn't see much about the hero. Who is he? Who is the one man the heroine can't live without? Then, as Wavy suggests, put them in head-to-head external conflict. And, as others have suggested, the story will arise out of the characters rather than trying to force the characters into an already plotted premise.
Oh yeah, I've started over several times. :) I rewrote my first book six or eight times--every time I'd learn something major about how to write, I'd rewrite that story. But I loved the hero and heroine and the basic premise of the story. They belonged together. So the issue wasn't a matter of forcing myself to finish the story, but of allowing myself to learn how to craft the story they deserved.
And in between rewrites of this story, I wrote bits and pieces and major chunks of other stories. Some of it falls under the heading of "how could I write such garbage." Other stuff I've dug out and reworked--like the novella I just finished. Other ideas are waiting until I get time to work on them.
Whether you finish this story or not, these words aren't wasted. If you don't use them for a future story, they are helping you learn the craft of writing. :)
To me the student-life aspect of it is what makes it seem mundane. Why not make her a young working professional in the aromatherapy industry, first year outta school..she winds up at an evil/questionable/controversial company where the guy who knocked her up in school works...more of a Grisham-style suspense thing...or, the guy could be 1 of her test subjects...but to me, there just ins't enough pressure or high enough stakes in the student world to give it enough tension, unless youre going for a rom-com or something. JMHO.
Alice, that's a good idea. I think I will try just writing to see where it takes me. This last time I tried only doing a few chapters at a time, but it still fizzled for me.
Wavy, that's a really good suggestion. One of the problems I'm running in to is that I don't feel like the characters are real. The plot jumps out at me more than the characters, so I'm not stuck to anything. It bothers me that I feel I can mold the characters to whatever plot I decide on. I need to figure out my characters more, or think of ones that are more interesting to me.
Genene, I love my hero (almost more than my heroine) ;) I prefer hero-centered stories actually. But this time the heroine jumped at me more for some reason, she just isn't super interesting. Good to know I'm not the only one writing a book over a million times!
Anon, thanks for your comments. It actually is a rom-com, or straight up contemporary (depends on how funny it is when it's done...) As far as the student thing, that has been calling out to me, personally, because I'm returning to school for a career change. So I've got that student 20-something state of mind :)
Thanks everyone! I really do appreciate your thoughtful comments!!
Hmmm...that's a tough question.
My answer is no. I've never gone and done major revisions like that. I've gone back and tweaked the suspense portion of a story and changed THAT, but not the characters jobs or who they are or the main conflict between them.
I generally know by chapter three if a book is going to work or not. So for me, the proposal idea works to flesh out a book - write three chapters and a synopsis. If I can't figure out what comes next, then odds are good I don't have enough to make a book work.
I agree that perhaps all your plotting has taken the mystery and fun out of your writing, and that may be why you're unmotivated to finish. There's also the fear of success...which many of us have but hate to admit. I mean, it's much easier to work on something than finish it and put it out there and have people critique it. I have a feeling you're dealing with not only loss of excitement from your plotting, but also the evil little monster that dwells within all of us that whispers over and over, "this sucks, this will never sell, the conflict isn't right, no one will EVER want to read this drivel." It's easier to listen to that voice than push through and finish. We're all afraid of hearing that from our peers. But you know what, Lisa? Cut yourself some slack. ALL writers hear that little evil voice, even your favorite writers.
Personally, I think you should push through and finish this book with the conflict and set up you've already established. I think you need to finish it to prove to yourself you CAN finish a book. Very few people sell their first book. And I'm not saying you won't sell yours, but I've learned over the years that my writing improves with every NEW thing I write. Revising, revising, revising old work does not propel me forward. I've seen it from other writers too. You will be amazed at how far your writing has come when you finish this book then sit down and start something new.
Good luck in whatever you decide to do. Keep us posted!
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