All day on Monday, I had the feeling that something was wrong.
I’d set my writing goal for the day. I had a couple of errands that I needed to do.
But I felt completely lethargic. And I couldn’t think very well. I wrote some pages and looked at them with disbelief. I’d written this?
The kids came home from school. I started going through backpacks and getting supper ready…very sloooowwly.
Finally I realized—I needed to go to the doctor.
Sinus infection.
If I’d only paid attention to myself earlier, maybe I could have started on an antibiotic the day before.
Y’all know I’m a fan of editing after the first draft is finished. But sometimes there’s just something wrong with the manuscript—an underlying, bad feeling that you get when you sit down to work with it.
If you don’t address that feeling that something is wrong, you could get so frustrated with the manuscript that you give up on it.
Yesterday I focused on potholes in stories to be edited out at the end. Below are some big, content-type problems that sometimes need special attention—maybe even while writing the first draft.
Signs Something Isn’t Working:
- You can’t logically explain what motivates the protagonist’s behavior.
- Along the same lines, your character has completely changed with no reasonable explanation.
- The plot is too derivative. You haven’t spun the old plot until it seems like something fresh.
- You can’t get into the protagonist’s head. They seem flat. You can’t identify with them at all.
- The plot limps along with no discernable conflict.
- There’s too much conflict and it changes from one thing to another. There’s no primary focus. There’s no theme, just ‘the world vs. John Smith.’
- There’s no hook to the novel.
- There’s only external conflict and no internal conflict for the main character.
- The protagonist is unlikeable.
- The protagonist isn’t interesting enough to carry a story.
- The reader might not be able to tell who the protagonist is.
- There’s no readily-identifiable antagonist. There’s just bad stuff that happens.
- Your content is a mess with flashbacks, backstory, telling instead of showing, too many dialogue tags, and point of view issues.
- Your characters aren’t original. They’re more like stock characters (the alcoholic cop, the snooty society lady, the shy librarian).
What do you do when you realize one or more of these things are happening? Some people start over from scratch. Some people will finish the manuscript and then do major revisions afterwards.
I like to just mark the point in the manuscript that I realized the problem with Microsoft Word’s highlighter…and start, at that point, writing differently for the rest of the book. I fix the original problem during revisions.
Have you run into these problems before? What do you do when you realize they’re happening?
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Tomorrow, my guest at Mystery Writing is Murder will be Kathy McIntosh. She’ll give us 7 tips for better brainstorming with her post “Get Drenched in Ideas.” Please join us!
Elizabeth – It’s funny you would mention that realization that something is wrong. I ran into that with my WIP, and oh, boy, was I rigtht! The story was all wrong, and I had to end up starting from scratch. Not fun, but I think it was worth it. I’ve got a cleaner plot now, with a better focus. Now if I could just get it all written… ; )
This is the reason it took me so long to write the current wip. About 30,000 words into the manuscript I realized something wasn’t right. I deleted 15,000 words, keeping only the part that worked. Now I have a first draft I feel good about, so I’m eager to start my revisions.
I had to stop writing at one point, reread to find where I’d gone wrong, and switch up from there. It went a lot easier after that :)
When I make a major change as I’m writing the first draft (say, change the gender of the sidekick, or something), I’ll do exactly what you do–mark the place and continue writing as if the change has already been made. Then I can go back and change stuff. This way, if for some reason I need to change it again (or revert back to the previous), I’ve kept everything compartmentalized.
When we have that feeling or that little voice tells us something isn’t right, it’s best to always listen. I’ve found that when you have that feeling, it’s right (especially when it comes to our health). Hope you’re feeling better. Very informative post.
I normally mull it over for as long as it takes, then fix it. I have scrapped scenes, chapters, as much as it takes when things aren’t going right. But I have to know why before I move on.
The manuscript I’m now editing had a problem – there was no pizzazz. No pop. I realized it on about the third chapter but I didn’t know how to fix it. I kept writing. About a hundred pages in, I knew what to do. I stopped, wrote a new first chapter, and pushed the existing chapters back. It took a little tinkering with what I already had, but within a few days I was back on track with a manuscript that worked.
I think when we don’t feel good it slows our ability to realize we don’t feel good. I think it’s similar to being so excited about a new story or scene that we don’t see the potholes.
For me, what I do when I realize an issue depends. I’ve had one book I scrapped and started over. I changed the age of the characters and the sex of the MC.
Great post and wonderful comments. Depending on if I can identify what’s wrong determines what I do. (It’s hard to fix a “feeling” rather than a specific problem.) On the last draft of my current wip, I pulled a Jack the Ripper, slicing and dicing more than 15% of the word count and rewriting entire chapters. The hook was great, but the book was kind of limping along. I cut out the limp and brought in the Irish Dancing. Agent is reading now – will find out the verdict soon! (Fingers crossed.)
Yes… I usually just have to start over. I’m not a fan of leaving such a huge mess to fix later. Makes me anxious. :0)
Elizabeth, I hope you feel better soon. As I am a chronic sinus infection sufferer, I feel for you. Get some rest, okay?
Karen
I mark the spot and keep going as if the change has already been made. This is what I’m doing now, having realized I can add another plot echoing from centuries earlier.
Elizabeth! Your posts are almost always pertinent to my situation – how do you get in our heads like this? My current wip is wrong – I’m not sure how it is wrong or even what approach I’m going to take but fifty five thou in and it is wrong…
argghh.
luckily I’m having a snow day so I can write instead of that pesky working!
Get well soon!
I can´t say I always follow my own rules, but unless the problems are huge, I think the best policy is to write a draft first and revise later. But what do I do: quite often I find myself changing minute details instead of getting on with it.
Good checklist for “what ails” a book, lol. I have one of my WIP’s that just isn’t “working” for me. I can’t really pin it down, but maybe this list will help. It just seems kind of flat and not very exciting to me right now.
Marvin D Wilson
Margot–Rewrites are ALWAYS better, aren’t they? Anytime I’ve written something over again, it’s always a ton better.I try not to go that far with more than a chapter, though–time constraints!
Patricia–I know it must have been painful to cut that many words, but it sounds like it worked out great!
Jemi–Good idea…see where it went off-course and how much fixing is required!
Alan–Good point. And God forbid I have to change it back again to the old way, but I’ve done that before, too. I get confused when I start going back and forth like that (it becomes a big source of continuity problems for me later). But if I mark it as I go, it’s much easier.
Jan–So, so frustrating! Especially that far in. But I bet you’ll pinpoint the problem soon and get it ironed out. Enjoy your snow day!
Mason–And so often we’re so busy that we don’t really have time to even listen to the voice–got to write X number of pages, got to run errands (no time for the doctor). But I think it always backfires in the end and causes more problems later.
Terry–Yeah, if something has a bad case of story malaise, I definitely want to know why. I do usually go after the characters and heap the blame on them…make them carry more of the burden for the story.
Marvin–Hope it helps. Maybe your reintroduction into the music world lately will help, too–I think creativity begets creativity!
Carol–That lifeless prose is really tough. I usually want to say that the fault lies with the characters? To me, they have a lot to do with stories that don’t pop.
Tara–I think that’s a VERY interesting idea. A *radical* redo–a gender change for the protag, etc.? That could work really well in some cases, I bet. Or changing the POV, even.
Debra–Sometimes it’s hard to pin down. Sometimes it’s just kind of flat and lifeless. And that’s never fun.
Kristen–I know what you mean. I’ll usually finish the book the way reflecting the new direction of the book, but I’ll fix the old stuff later. But it’s bad if I’ve made my realization later in the book!
Karen–Thank you!! I think the amoxicillan (sp?)is starting to finally work. Between that and over the counter cold meds I think I’m getting somewhere! :)
I do read and re-read as I write, esp if I’m stuck. Re-reading often will get me jazzed up again or give me ideas. I also re-read because often there are long lapses where I can’t write because I’ve got editing to do for other writers. Right now, I’m looking at my own work and realizing I am way over-using the word “she.” On one page I counted “she” 25 times! Yikes!
Helen
Straight From Hel
What a great blog. And only under this circumstance will I ever suggest to a reader he go back and make changes before the first draft is complete… I think if you continue with a weak plot or flat characters, you’re whole book will suffer.
Great post!
ann
That was a list of my worst nightmares!
I’ve had some problems with getting in my protagonists head before, in which case I worry at it. Thinking about him/her all day for days while I go back and edit something else. Eventually, something occurs to me that makes me “get” them. After that I can go back to writing.
I, too, like to edit at the end. But, more and more, I find myself editing as I go along. Why? Since I rarely outline, holes/problems (or lack thereof) affect where the rest of the story goes. This is especially true for bigger holes. My characters just can’t seem to “go on” knowing there are problems in their past story lives. Crazy, I know.
Best Wishes Galen.
Imagineering Fiction Blog
It’s worse when you DON’T realize something is wrong! It took my first test reader to point out I’d made my main character a little too unlikeable at one point. Fortunately, it didn’t take too much to fix it, but there were a lot of small adjustments.
Helen–I know what you mean! I keep saying “Aunt Pat’s” instead of “the restaurant.” I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m totally aware of it, too….
Elspeth–I’m starting to hope I’m smart enough to be able to understand your book when I read it!
Ann–Thanks! :) And I agree–I would take forever to go back and fix a weak plot or really unmotivated character after the draft is done.
Dorte–It’s SO tempting to do that. But it can really mess up our momentum, I think. Big changes, though…those probably need to be addressed before they get too crazy.
Galen–I think our characters need some therapy to figure out their past! I know what you mean, though. Sometimes we just have to sit down and figure it all out on another sheet of paper. I usually end up throwing the paper away, but it gets the characters and their histories set in my head.
Alex–Well, that’s true! Of course, what’s unlikeable for one might not be unlikeable for the next person…but I think it’s probably better to be safe than sorry, isn’t it? I tread a thin line with my Myrtle protagonist.
I TRY to just shove my way through it and then when I get past or figure it out, note where everything BEFORE needs revision attention. I just recently resolved an inadequately motivated villian–when the conflict seems poorly motivated, the whole thing can seem sort of hokey, and nobody wants a hokey book unless it is parody…
My books don’t have major antagonists, although I gave the final book of my series a couple big ones!
My last book took forever because I kept going, even though I had that “funny feeling.” Then I had to get rid of 20,000 words and revise a lot to make it work.
I’m determined to have a better plan for the next and to listen to those voices when they warn me.
Hart–At least you realized it! Sometimes I want to ignore the problem (so much EASIER to ignore it.)
I always felt like the play “Our Town” was hokey. I know we weren’t *supposed* to feel that way, but that was the very definition of hokey to me. I made several English professors upset by saying that. :) I bet your novel isn’t nearly as hokey as that ‘classic’!
Diane–And congrats on your upcoming release! I can’t imagine how you’re feeling, having the last book of the series coming out.
Lorel–It IS a nightmare list…kind of makes me shudder. I’ve had the same problem you mentioned…what makes the protagonist tick? At first it’s like we’re politely talking to each other and aren’t really acquainted. And that can’t last very long or else we’re in trouble!
Kathy–And it’s so inconvenient to listen to the voices! Because we *can* finish a book even with major problems. But then we have to look at *should* we finish it? Or change it radically at that point? At some point it becomes too expensive, time-wise, doesn’t it?
I’m looking forward to your post tomorrow! :)
Wow – this actually helped me with my current WIP. (The part about the ambiguous antagonist.)
Thanks as always for your well-thought advice on writing!!
Corra ;)
from the desk of a writer