You wouldn’t think those three inches of snow we got Friday would make such a mess of the roads. The brine and the melting, muddy snow was tossed up on my car from cars and trucks and sent me off to the car wash Sunday.
As I do any time I’m waiting for longer than 5 minutes, I pulled out my notebook and started writing, right there in the car wash waiting room. I even had a handy dandy note to myself at the top of the page, to remind me where I needed to pick up the story.
A couple of minutes later, someone plopped down in the seat next to me. This was a little annoying to me, since the car wash waiting room had plenty of extra seats. But I’ve gotten really disciplined, so I kept writing without even looking up.
“Hi babe,” said this really odd voice. Oh great. I leaned way over to the right, away from the weird man and continued writing (although I was pretty sure I was writing complete crap by now.)
“Come here often?” asked the strange voice. “Whatcha writin’?”
I drew in a deep breath and looked up, scowling in a most discouraging, icy, and—I hoped—unattractive way.
And saw my husband grinning at me.
I could have wrung his neck. He’d done a great job disguising his voice and wasn’t supposed to be there—but he was getting his car inspected next door (North Carolina has annual emissions and equipment testing) and had seen me drive in, so he’d walked over.
We had a nice little conversation…although, technically, he was keeping me from my goal. My plan was to get some work done in the 15-20 minutes that it took to wash and vacuum my car. It was a very small hiccup in my plan to fit writing in on a chaotic Sunday, but I had been thwarted. In the nicest possible way, of course.
I realized, later, that I’ve written a lot of little hiccups in my plots, too. It doesn’t always have to be Lex Luthor armed with Kryptonite to temporarily keep a protagonist from their goal and create a little stress. Yes, I have a killer on the rampage, throwing up all kinds of roadblocks and determined to keep my sleuth from finding out his identity. But there are other small obstacles for discovering the truth.
It can be an ordinary or trivial thing that takes the day on a new path:
An unexpected visit by a well-meaning friend.
A long phone call.
Car trouble.
Power outage.
Computers that aren’t working.
Characters who discourage or doubt our protagonist’s abilities.
A broken alarm clock.
Poor health.
Lies our protagonist believes are truths (my suspects lie to my sleuth all the time.)
These are small things…but they make believable conflicts that can put our protagonist at the wrong place at the wrong time, send them off in an unproductive direction, or temporarily keep them from their goal.
You still have the main conflict going on in the background. We still need the Lex Luthors in the story. But it’s great to work in extra bits of conflict, delays, and distractions, too.
And the nice thing is that readers won’t even think our storyline hiccups farfetched.
Because our days are full of distractions.
Elizabeth – Oh, those distractions! They are an important part of our lives, and there’s no reason they shouldn’t be woven into our writing, too. I know for my protag, he’s a professor, so he’s sometimes distracted by student papers and other work, faculty meetings, and so on. In fact, sometimes, he feels guilty because he’s dead-set on figuring out the mystery, and is thinking about it, when all of a sudden he realizes someone’s been talking to him. I like distractions. They’re human.
Boy are our days filled with hiccups. It seems like every time I have a plan to get something done, a distraction happens. So reading about characters having distractions makes it that much more real. Plus it adds to the suspense.
Yes, those little lies are great distractions for the protagonist. And your husband disguising his voice is so funny! I can picture you scowling and leaning away.
BTW my guy kept distracting me during my writing time today too. “Which section you working on? How’s it going? How did you describe the monsters?”
I said something like, “If you be quiet for two minutes, I’ll write the darn section then you can see for yourself!” Only the people who love us can annoy us so :)
Way to go husband! And good job controling your notebook and not wacking him over the head.
You know what is annoying in a book? Too many distractions? I read a book recently written in very short segments–VERY SHORT SEGMENTS. The main character was always cut off from her purpose by a distraction. My point? They serve a purpose–to distract from the main plot line for a bit, to add red herrings, to introduce supporting characters–but they can be overdone.
Michele
SouthernCityMysteries
I hear you — I drove to and from Jacksonville to give a plotting workshop this weekend, and I noticed that at high speeds, my car pulled to the right. So, today, instead of dealing with moving prep, I’ll be sitting at the car place. I’ll take my lsaptop, and try to get something productive done on another project, but my real goal is being sidetracked.
How sweet your distraction!
I needed to read your words today. I let too many distractions get in my “writing” way.
Love it :) I’m sure your hubby got a quick out of the whole scene!
I’ve used disruptions several times to either frustrate or distract my MCs. Lots of fun!
Elizabeth, this cracked me up. I can just see you scribbling away and so annoyed at being interrupted. Your hubby sounds delightful.
Karen
Great story. Made me laugh. And, a great reminder. Thanks!
Ha ha!
Silly Old Me decided to insert an action scene into the third chapter of current WIP – and now I have a heroine who has a bashed up wrist and two moderately bashed knees.
I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into. Everything I had planned on having her do for the rest of the book is more difficult.
That’s a great story, Elizabeth! I thought for sure it was a complete stranger at first! Glad it turned out to be your hubby! :-)
But you’re so right. We have so many distractions in our lives. I’ve had to learn to plug away in the midst of them, or I’d probably never get any writing done!
I was going to quote the John Lennon line as well! Even type A personalities can’t control everything. Annoying, but true.
Margot–He has a lot going on! Whenever I walk into a classroom, it always seems like every student is competing for the teacher’s attention. And he’s got to solve a crime on top of it all!
Mason–And some of the tension in the book, too. Because the characters are being kept from their goals.
Lorel–Too funny! It’s nice that he’s interested, but much easier to get some writing actually done when no one is talking to you! Good thing we love them, right?
Michele–You’re right about that. Because we do want an ESCAPE from reality! Too many distractions IS reality. And at some point, especially in a mystery that has a task to be completed, we need to stay on-task.
And here I thought I just had the attention span of a gerbil. Distractions are everywhere. Finding focus can be so difficult sometimes. Thanks for the great post!
I think if you know your characters really well, you’ll know their distractions. I was lying in bed yesterday thinking about my newest WIP and I realized that though I know my main character well, I don’t know her husband, so I tried to imagine him and his personalities and his distractions.
Oh, BTW, I plan to write a review to your book this afternoon for my blog, you can come check it out later.
ann
Sneaky husband!
You know what though? I’ve learned over the past few years that spending fifteen minutes talking with my husband is far more important that whatever I am writing, at least in the grand scheme of things. It took me a while to reach that point, but he’s no longer a distraction. At least one I don’t welcome!
However, I can think of a thousand other annoying, distracting things!
You’re right – distractions can change everything!
John Lennon: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans…”
John Lennon
Beautiful Boy
Distractions not only serve a plot purpose, they serve to make your characters more believable. Just don’t put in too many of them, then they become suspect.
I like how you reacted to the stranger (and I bet your husband did too).
Helen
Straight From Hel
Oooh! Good point! And if anything, using these little distractions is not only more realistic but also more frustrating (in a good way), because here’s your character, trying to save the world, and here’s the reader, trying to urge them on, and out of all things to impede their goals, it’s something small, seemingly insignificant. The reader often accepts a “lex luther” scenario better than the more realistic one. And yet….I’m a big believer in frustrating the reader just a little bit–evoking an emotion in them is my goal–just as long as eventually they’re satisfied.
What? Your suspects lie to your sleuths all the time? How dare they. LOL! Do your readers know they’re lying too? Some authors let suspects lie to the reader while others allow you to know they’re lying. Some authors mix it up so you don’t know what the heck is happening. I like the third option. Keeps you guessing.
Stephen Tremp
I love the car wash story. Your husband sounds like a fun kind of guy.
That sounds like something my husband would do!) It’s funny how it can be the little blips in our plans that cause the biggest problems. But, I think Michele is right – too many in a book can my the story seem forced and do more harm than good.
Terry–Sometimes I get a lot done at places like that…I’m not interested in automotive places, so won’t be looking around me very much and can focus on my story.
Journaling Woman–Unfortunately, my day has been diverted a lot today, too! But I’m hoping to get back on track later. It happens!
Ann –Great point! Because some things that bother one person might not bother someone else. Very true.
Diane–Well, you’re right about that. Quality time! Of course, I tell him that if I can just get done with the thing that we’ll have more time together. :)
Alex–They can be game changers.
Jemi–Definitely a good way to show how characters react–by the way they handle frustrations and distractions.
Cleo–I love that song! Thanks for the reminder. Good point.
Karen–I thought it was really funny, too–after I got over him tricking me!
Helen–It’s true…it should be treated more as a spice for the story. I think my hubby was happy with my reaction. :) It could have been worse…I could have brought my mace out!
Susana–I think if we frustrate readers a little bit then they’ll want to read ahead quickly to make sure everything gets back on track. At least, that’s the way I am as a reader. “Oh! Is it going to be okay? Is she going to make the flight? What’s going to happen?”
Paul–Thanks!
The Daring Novelist–And then you have to keep remembering the injury! Yeah, I’d probably make it a one-time distraction so I wouldn’t forget it…the broken alarm clock scenario.
Jody–It’s true–I can’t even imagine having a dedicated writing time. I’m always writing on the go.
Stephen–Oh, it’s a mystery because they tell the truth AND they lie. So it’s hard to pick out the truth among the lies! But a good way to get my clues and red herrings in.
Elspeth–We can TRY though. It never seems to work out, but we can TRY!
Jane–Sometimes it’s almost like we’re being plotted against. :) But you’re right…we can’t go overboard or else nothing gets accomplished in our plot.
Creative Chronicler–They really are everywhere, aren’t they? I’ve had a bunch of distractions crop up today, too. :)
This is a great reminder, Elizabeth. I actually made some notes for my editing that I need to have a few more of these ‘life doesn’t go quite as smoothly as this’ detours, but you have some nice concrete examples.
Of course I NEVER get distracted. When digression is your religion, you get to call it spiritual diversions…
I have a few distractions, but not many. I think it’s more realistic to have some.
I’ve been thinking about tension, and how it can be ramped-up in a story. Seems to me tension and conflict go hand-in-hand. So, if you’re creating conflict, kinda by definition, you’re creating tension. Tension is cumulative, too. Lots of little tension equals one big tension. A good thing.
Best Wishes Galen.
Imagineering Fiction Blog
Good one today, Elizabeth. Not unusual for you of course. (wink). It’s those little things that make stories seem so real life-like, hmm?
Marvin D Wilson
Hart–It’s just another way to torment our characters..in small ways.
You have definitely elevated digressions to an art form! :) And you make it work for you.
Carolyn–Well, as moms we’re more inundated with our distractions! Maybe it’s a relief when we’re writing to create a place that *doesn’t* have them! But I think it’s probably better if the story does.
Galen–Great point! Because we’re all told to increase the tension and conflict…can’t be a bad thing in a story.
Patricia–Yes, sometimes I look at him and I see my 12 year old… :)
Marvin–I think so, too. It’s always the little things that make life (and stories) special.