Tag: books

The Evolving Storyline

What do you do when you set out to write a story and suddenly it is no longer the story you set out to write?

The evolving story, as I like to call it, happens to me quite frequently. When I wrote my story “The 50 Deaths of Annabelle Joy” there was clearly my heroine plagued by the affections of the villainous Grim Reaper. I knew she would hate him the entire time, be repulsed by his affection for her, and fight to get away from him every day of her life. My original plan had Annabelle growing up, marrying, and giving birth to a daughter. As Annabelle’s daughter grew up, Death would begin to shift his interest from Annabelle to her daughter. When Annabelle learns Death intends to release her and to begin courting her daughter, Annabelle would agree to become his bride. That WAS my plan, but after I started writing it, the story evolved into something entirely different.

I am the author who becomes more acquainted with my characters as I write my story, I let my characters tell me the story and I write it. My last post I talked about character interviews, getting to know you character as the/she grows during the story. The interview was especially important in my book referenced above. As I wrote and interviewed my antagonist, I began to see the story from his perspective and that he was not, in fact, a ‘bad guy’ but a victim of circumstance.

The evolution of a story is not always as dramatic as it had been in my case, it could be something small like an unexpected ally or perhaps a game changer of finding someone else is the true villain. Allowing for evolution is partly why I do not attempt to outline my entire book, because I know the plan will likely change. As I write I find favorite characters die, while some deaths turn out to be only a near-death. I’ve had bad guys soften their hearts to become a hero and I have had strong alliances turn out to be a front, none of which I planned from the beginning.

People have asked me, ‘How did you not know your character would do that? You’re writing the story.’ Yes, I am writing the story, but I write what I see as I see it. 

All I would like to say is you should not plan your book so stringently you do not allow for things to change. We have a vision for our books as we set out to write them, but sometimes what comes from the evolution is so much better than anything we could have planned.

Failed plans should not be interpreted as a failed vision. Visions don’t change, they are only refined. Plans rarely stay the same, and are scrapped or adjusted as needed. Be stubborn about the vision, but flexible with your plan. John C. Maxwell

I would love to hear of a time from you when you wrote a story that turned out differently from what you had planned.

What makes the perfect ending?

I am an a proponent of the happy ending. No, I’m talking about what comes after the massage, but the ending to the story. I’m the reason why so much of Hollywood is now predictable, we almost always know that no matter what the characters go through, it will all work out in the end.

So, what then makes the perfect ending? We know that endings don’t have to end happy… hello Romeo and Juliet… But is that what most people want? I think what most people want is an ending that is not so predictable. Coming up with an original idea for ending is difficult and I think the surprise for the ending is something you build throughout the story.

I am unintentionally writing an unsuspecting ending to my current story. I say unintentional because the story is no longer ending how it was meant to end when I started writing. Through a couple moments of creative liberty, I accidentally made my ending an impossible one. The ending I was now stuck with was one that did not make me and I did not think it would make the readers happy. I saw my ending as a lose-lose-lose. Not good for me, the readers, or the characters. 

I wanted a new ending, one that wrapped up the storyline to a natural conclusion, and yet continues on ever so slightly becoming a win-win for my main characters.  When I finally figured out what the ending would be, I was astounded that I hadn’t considered it before. 

I think the best way to create a surprising ending is to decide what the expected ending would be and then go away from it. I wouldn’t completely ditch the expected ending, I would expand on it and change it so that it becomes something original. We all know how the boy meets girl story ends… they fall in love and live happily ever after. In Romeo and Juilet the boy and girl do end up together, but the twist is they both die. 

Tell me some of your favorite endings. I love the ending to the movie “Just Like Heaven”. You think that all is lost, and yet it works out. Sure I hoped the entire time that I would, but there was a chance that it wouldn’t and it just made me happy to see them together.

Thanks for reading, and have a good week!

The end and the beginning

I was so excited about everything going on yesterday that I didn’t realize I had forgotten to post until about 10 PM, so I thought I would save it for today.

October 31st: Halloween to everyone else, but for me, it was my deadline day. I had one chapter and and an epilogue to write and I still had pages from my notebook to type. I sat down at my desk and looked at wall of inspiration and as I prepared to type, I was nervous. Why? Was I channeling my main character’s fear or was it my own as I was preparing to conclude this story I have been working on for years? When I typed “The End” it didn’t feel like I had imagined. All week long I was excited as I prepared to tell the world that my story was complete, but as I looked at the final words on my screen I was actually a little sad. Bittersweet, I suppose. 

Still I would like to pat myself on the back. While I have known the story in its entirety for quite some time, I have never written it from start to finish. This is certainly a personal victory. I have not gone back and read through my book all the way yet because I know that once I do, I’ll immediately start making corrections.

So that was the end, now for the beginning.

November 1st: I saw many of my Facebook friends posting that it was time to begin the 30 days of giving thanks. For me, at mid-night, I was at a coffee shop with many other NaNoWriMo participants. We met around 11 PM as we talked to discuss any issues we were having with our stories before the midnight hour arrived. When midnight arrived, I went right to work on my new novel. 

For those of you who do not know what NaNoWriMo is, let my introduce you briefly. NaNoWriMo = National Novel Writing Month (www.nanowrimo.org). You sign up and pledge to write 50,000 in 30 days. You have from midnight on November 1st through 11:59PM on November 30th to submit your final word count. Everyone can win, there are no real prizes, but there are lots of opportunities. Nano is great for people that need help find publishers and literary agents, or authors that simply want to know other aspiring authors. I really recommend it if you enjoy writing. If you can commit a sporadic 2 hours or so per day, you can easily make your word count goal for Nano, it is only about 1700 words per day.

So, we have not reached the end of day 1 for Nano yet… but I have already finished my prologue and first chapter and submitted a word count of around 2300. I’m off to a great start. My goal is to write 1 chapter per day so that I have time to edit near the end. There are too many great publishing opportunities, and I would hate for my story to be a discombobulated mess if I can help it =)

Is anyone else out there participating in NaNoWriMo 2013? If you are, please add me. My username is ChristinaW87 and my story is “The 50 Deaths of Annabelle Joy”

I wish you all a fantastic weekend. Happy November!