Flailing out the gate for NaNoWriMo! Woo hoo! *flops over*
I’m honestly good about writing a lot, every day. Because, well, I do that every day. Rare is the day that goes by where I don’t clock at least 1,000 words between working on stories and writing blog posts.
But I’ve been drawn up short by Wolves of Boston. I have a plot and lead characters, but things went awry while I was writing the intro scene. It’s not a bad scene, and there is great interaction between my heroic protagonist and one of the lead characters.
It just didn’t go anywhere.
The problem is that I don’t have any plot instigation, whether that is driven by my protagonist’s own desires (Amelia Peabody went on much-longed-for ‘Grand Tour’ after her father died, and thus fell into romance and adventure – Crocodile on the Sandbank) or by external events (Frodo becoming the locus of the crisis of the ring – Lord of the Rings). No “shot heard round the world” or public panic or personal tragedy… nada.
Generally I tend to start stories in media res, and I think that habit is what is crippling me right now.
So I’m talking (chatting) it over with my Plot Mistress, Kim McShane, and I think we’ve finagled a connection between the three leads that might pull the rip cord on the plot. I hope.
Sadly for many reasons, not least of which is my friend ChristineB actually moving to Austin (happy for her, sad for me!), tonight is a “dinner and a movie” going away celebration. I won’t get much chance to write until tomorrow.
I’ll keep you posted.
Tomorrow: on writing “older” characters (over 30 y.o.) who already have a bit of mileage under the hood.
