Bugger

[gothick]

My plot makes no sense at all. And I can't make it make sense. It seemed like a good idea at the time, to head away from the character development kind of plot I was vaguely thinking of and emphasise the lightweight thriller-y kind of element of things, because that's far more easy to fit into 50,000 words. But with that kind of plot, it really, really helps if you know where you're heading: what the plan is, from start to finish.

Otherwise you plot yourself into a corner, like I've just done, and get completely stuck.

I mean, I can see this being a useful exercise, at the very least, and I can see me using some of these characters and ideas. But right now, I just can't see myself actually finishing this thing. Okay, so it doesn't have to make sense; that's part of NaNoWriMo. But try telling my writer/muse/whatever that. If I can't see anywhere for the plot to go, and I can't even see any way of fixing the existing stuff I've written, I don't seem to be able to get on with the next scene. I've tried a few things; I've even tried starting from the end and working backwards. But it doesn't seem to be working.

Arse.

Comments

[gothick-matt.livejournal.com]

Well, I seem to be doing okay with the end. For my plot, it might turn out to have been better to start at the end and work my way back to the beginning. I probably wouldn't have ended up writing myself into so many corners.

It's not all bad; I think I'll be able to keep up the wordcount, at least. But I'm finding increasing difficulty keeping that inner editor turned off; the one who keeps on screaming, "But that plot just doesn't make any sense! How could that possibly have happened?" I think, however, that if I just keep on going, I'll have enough idea of what's gone right and what's gone wrong by the end, and maybe how to fix it without throwing it all away and starting again.

My main problem is that I didn't introduce my antagonist early enough, so my characters were mostly battling with an unseen and uncharacterised enemy, which didn't really do any good, and means he got introduced too late to be anything other than two-dimensional. And also it didn't help generate plot, not knowing much about what the bad guy was up to, or why.

Plus my premise/much of the plot is based on one or drugs which have some quite interesting effects, but I ended up locking said drugs away in a garage early on, and not getting them out in time to actually demonstrate what they were all about.

What I might do from here on in is to write some of the scenes which should have existed earlier on, showing and telling about the antagonist and the drugs, and not worry that they simply don't fit in to the plot or connect to anything else. I think they'll be needed for a finished product, and once I've got them down it might become more apparent how to link them up. There's always March's National Novel Editing Month!

But, yes, I may be referring back to your comment if I run out of steam (still nearly 19,000 words to go! Argh!) Heck, I might even get desperate enough to introduce Bobby Ewing himself, let alone use dodgy plot tricks! After all, I am starting from a premise of characters who are used to taking large quantities of hallucinogenic drugs :)