Monday 21 February 2011

Writing Reflections - Where I Lose The Plot

So there I was sitting there thinking about nothing at all when bang I realised where I'm going wrong with Shroud and in a big way. I've had a supporting character playing the wrong relationship with the protagonist. I'm half way through the story, part of me is thinking I'm going to have to start over right from the beginning, part of me is hoping I can just go back change a few paragraphs and bits of dialogue to establish the new pathway and part of me is banging its head against the wall.

Changing the relationship does have benefits:
It better establishes back story and ties 5 characters to the same history.
Motives of protagonists mother will be understandable instead of her appearing as a bitch that no-one is going to care about.
It helps fill in the gaps I've had with the antagonist
And overall will make the story more plausible and can get of some story points I've never really been happy with.

With all that in mind do I do the bare minimum of tweaking to get Shroud on track and cobble through to the end of the first draft or do I roll right back to page one?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do...whatever keeps you working.

Many authors can jot down a few notes and finish the draft. I'm not one of them. I have problems reframing what needs to happen going forward if I have big problems behind me. Despite my extreme dislike for rewriting and editing, I know I'll get more done if I go back and fix things.

In any case, it sounds like you made a great step forward development-wise.

Anonymous said...

I can't add much to Katherine's wise words, except to echo that it does sound like you're moving the story in the right direction and that's what count.