Progress Bar from Writertopia
Or alternatively, Why Is Writing THIS Novel So Bloody Hard!
When I last reported in, I was applying the Story Structure checklist to Stellar Gift of Death. Really what decided me was the Guest Post by Linda Yezak and her opening question: “Ever have a devil of a time getting a stalled story to kick in again?”
Boy if that doesn’t describe Stellar right now, I will eat every scrap of paper this manuscript has generated so far. I also have a feeling that most readers would be proscribing that I trunk this story and move onto something new. The idea was had too long ago, has set too long, you’re just not that into it. But something about the characters, the setting, and they mystery are compelling me to keep hacking a new path through the hedge maze.
So a new set of machetes in the form of Story Structure. And I’ve spent two days on the checklist and haven’t gotten further than the First Plot Point. I have an event in the proper place for it: a racketeer who Zy tried unsuccessfully to warn is murdered right in front of her. While it’s pretty shocking, especially since Zy can’t figure out how it was done, it doesn’t change her agenda going forward. It’s already her job to catch the murderer and the victim wasn’t a sympathetic character.
Scratching my head, I figured maybe I was misunderstanding the Story Structure concepts. I would plug the formula onto another story of mine and see that I miss one of the milestones or I put them in a different spot. Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic was picked because I had the numbers handy.
In a correctly structured story, the First Plot Point is found in the first 20% - 25% of the narrative, the Mid-Point around 50%, and the Second Plot Point at 75%. Based on the word count, 25% of Pirates falls in Chapter Ten, 50% is in Chapter Twenty-One, and 75% is in Chapter Thirty-Four. Chapter Ten is when the pirates of the title finally show up (I even made a funny that it took so long to get to them!). Chapter Twenty-One is when the Shaman forces two big secrets into the open, changing things for the characters and the readers’ assumptions. Chapter Thirty-Four is when DG finally accepts and harnesses her magic and makes taking out the antagonists possible. Bam! Story Structure right where it is supposed to be. Which also means I know how to do this instinctively, I just lacked the terminology for what I was doing.
It also means that my current sequence of events in Stellar is not working and that’s why I don’t want to work on it. Not because I’m lazy or the idea is bad, the story is just forced into the wrong structure and the only want to stop it is to block the construction. So where is my true First Plot Point? What event causes the quest to change for Zy, changes the stakes, creates risks and opposition?
That would be the plot point I put down as the Mid Point when the racketeers force her and Xeryl into an active partnership solving the murders. It shifts the need from protecting the racketeers and doing her job to protecting this male and potential romantic partner while living with him when she doesn’t trust him not to have an agenda concerning her. The consequences are now personal because the racketeers may decide the paranoid nut is right and killing Zy eliminates the threat of the serial killer. Risk and opposition is what this scene sets up.
So what does this mean for my plot and the timeline of events I have created? Big holes shot through them, but I think the big events can be salvaged and improved. When I’m bored by the investigation I’m creating, it all needs help. :p
Let’s see if I move Hiq to Xitat 5 and make his death the reason for the conclave.... Good thing I have a holiday three-day weekend to figure this out.
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