Plots are tricky beasts, aren't they? Visuals can help. Sometimes. Image c/o flickr user HJ Media Studios.
The past week of writing has been both hard and great. I made a LOT of changes to the plot of the YA fantasy I’m working on. But I’ve also had some breakthroughs and I feel much more confident about the direction I’m going in.
But I’m still having a hard time letting go.
I miss the plot points that have been wiped away. Some of them had to do with the essential premise of my story. Saying goodbye to those also means I have to rewrite, retool and rework a LOT of the copy I have so far.
Plotting is probably one of the most difficult parts of writing for me.
“What if?”
It’s the question that drives so much of my writing, thinking of weird premises and possibilities, brainstorming impossibly awkward situations to put characters in and so on. But it also holds me back. As I was looking at my plot, the whole of it, it was hard to commit. What role will a certain secondary character play in the climax? I couldn’t decide between heroically saving the day, getting fatally wounded, or a dozen other possibilities. As soon as I’d settled on one, my brain would answer with a, “But what if… what if…?”
A lot of being able to move forward with writing is learning to TRUST THE PLOT–that is, finding the strand of storyline grabs me, sticks to me, and gets me excited. To have faith that when tugged, that plot strand will stay firmly attached rather than coming loose or flying apart. Trusting that following the storyline may lead somewhere different than I expected, but that it will still be wonderful and exciting and worthwhile.
While I have been plagued with indecisiveness, I am making progress! I’ve managed to meet my January 2011 writing goals:
- Plot the whole story.
- Write 7500 words.
And I’ll be starting on my February goal, which is simply to write 15k words. Which will hopefully put me a third of the way through my novel! Woooo.
Do you have trouble “making decisions” about your story/book/plot? How do you move forward with confidence?