Today I'm taking an intermission from Deb's story. Thursday and Friday I'll post the last two segments. Then we'll all have to wait until the book is published to read the rest.
I want to update you on my October goal. I didn't make it. I was trying to finish a 50,000 word rough draft, and only made it to 42,000. The end just wasn't ready to be told. In fact, that's where I'm still sitting.
But I don't feel bad for not hitting my target dead center. Setting that goal in the first place spurred me to write 42k on a draft that had been sitting for a year with only 2 pages completed.
My final goal hasn't changed. I want to have a decent manuscript by the end of February. One that's at least ready to show my agent.
The last two months have taught me why it took me so long to get started on this project. First, the family situation. This is based on a true story--an aunt all my relatives admired. I'm afraid when they read it, they'll be expecting my character to be Elsie.
I named my character Emma, and Emma may do some things and make some choices that Elsie never would have. But Emma has successfully become a character to me. I'm finding out what issues Emma has to deal with. I don't yet know her as deeply as I should, but I'm getting to know her.
So I have to put thoughts of disappointed relatives aside and think of a larger audience.
My second problem is that the time period spans more than three years. Large chunks of that first year have to be skipped over to move to story along. The last two years includes a romance. When I had the idea for this book, I didn't know it involved a romance, but I'm happy it does. This is set in a prison camp and a romance will add a hopeful element--something for Emma to look forward to each day.
But look at the typical romance formula: Meeting, conflict and friction, and finally realizing their love. I don't want to make this overly formulaic, but it's a pattern to follow. How do I stretch that out over two years so that they aren't in conflict for too long, and they're not all cozy and romantic for too long?
So you can see I have a lot of work to do. I don't have all the plot points figured out yet, but I'm a lot closer than I was two months ago. Now, off I go to plug away at it again.
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7 comments:
I’m a sucker for a love story though I don’t care much for romance, so you can take what I say with a grain of salt, but I see no reason why it has to follow the romance formula unless you are trying to write for the Romance genre. It doesn’t have to be love at first sight, but why not just have the two realize that they like each other very soon after they meet. With it being set in a prison camp, I am sure there is enough conflict already without you needing to have the two love birds get into a fight with each other. The could face any number of hardships that threaten their common goals, but the one constant thing could be their love for each other. Shakespeare saw nothing wrong with the couple falling in love early and then working together to overcome the obstacles. Romeo and Juliet is probably his best loved play. If you do that then you can have them cozy and romantic for a long time and you don’t have to marry them or kill them off until you are ready. The hardships of life in a prison camp will keep their relationship from going past the point where you want it.
Timothy,
Thanks for chiming in. I guess love story is what I meant. We women don't see much difference, but I understand why men do.
The conflict I meant wouldn't be fighting. More like inner conflict. The hero falls for my heroine very quickly, and she never dislikes him. But for a while, she tries to remain simply friends because there are so many reasons why a romantic relationship is a bad idea.
But she can only fight it for so long. And I'm trying to find a good balance. A good turning point.
You're absolutely right. Their outside circumstances provide plenty of conflict for the story.
congrats on making 42k. I don't remember when you started; how long did that take? What was your daily wc goal? I need one.
I'm at 47k, but I started in March.
Hang in there. You're into the part of writing a story where it's just slog, slog, slog and maybe not quite as fun as it once was. This is the segment of the story in which less-committed authors bail out. And when you persevere, this is the segment that will separate you from the amateurs.
Write on!
Camille,
I started in September. My goal was to write 1,250 words a day, 5 days a week. That would have given me just over 50k for a skeleton rough draft. It was an easy goal, one where if life got in the way and I couldn't write for a day, it wasn't hard to make up for it. I would have met my goal if the ending hadn't been so stubborn.
For people who set daily goals, probably no two are the same. Just decide at what point you'd like to finish your manuscript and divide out the word count into days.
Deb,
I don't like first drafts much to begin with, and this one has been my hardest. Slog, slog. That's what I keep telling myself--just get through this and it'll get better.
In my skeleton draft, I do have a turning point where Emma realizes this man is much more than a friend. But the plot after that point isn't ironed out as smoothly as it could be. That will come with fleshing out and knowing my characters better.
Tina - I'll agree with Timothy's comment. I'm not a romance fan because I don't like the formula. I've deliberately tried to avoid it in all of my novels. It often doesn't seem real to me. In fact, my own story is more like what you described here. We met, but for several reasons (though we liked each other right away), we stayed just friends for three years before we started dating. During that time I kept telling myself he was just a friend... :)
One other thought... the typical romance formula contains conflict in the romance because that's the whole story. If you have a story where the conflict is elsewhere (that is, the war) then perhaps less conflict in their relationship would be appropriate. As Timothy says, it could be something stable, a bit of hope for them to cling to in everything else they are going through.
Just suggestions, of course! Have fun playing with it and seeing what works!
Okay, I guess this is what I get for writing a blog post off the top of my head.
I should NOT have mentioned the romance formula. I DON'T write formulas. Especially not of the romance genre. I forget that none of you have read my work--with the possible exception that some of you have read the opening of my first chapter on this blog. But that's not enough to give you much indication of how I write.
I was attempting to explain--in a simple manner--the problems I've had writing the first draft. In researching that particular prison camp, I've come to realize that the love story is going to have to be more prominent than I first thought. The internees in Santo Tomas weren't tortured or mistreated for the most part. They were simply woefully neglected. American troops were elsewhere gathering strength, so the outside war wasn't affecting them at all for most of the story.
Therefore, if my hero and heroine have nothing keeping them apart at first, I have nothing moving the story forward. And the reality of the situation was that these two real people had plenty keeping them apart. They never fought. They never disliked each other. But, mostly on her part, a romance wasn't wise.
That's also why I mentioned not having every plot point figured out. I'd like to throw something more at them so the love story isn't the only structure holding up the sagging middle. However, I don't want to portray this camp as something other than it was.
I do have them together and very much in love when things start getting bad in the camp.
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