The final chapters of IMMOLATION have been rubbing me
wrong. I knew how I wanted things to end, but I couldn't seem to get
there. I wandered, I detoured, I even tried a few meanderings but
nothing worked. Joan wouldn't go to where I needed her to be, and
even when I just plopped her down in the place I wanted, she wouldn't
do what she was suppose to do.
What's a writer to do?
I suppose this is one of the advantages of being a
writer of fiction; I get to rewrite history, or at least the history
in the fictional world. Thankfully I'm only having to go back a few
chapters to make things work. It could have been a whole lot worse.
My other novel, the one I'm working on getting ready for agent
queries and all that jazz, is currently getting a pretty thorough
work over. It's not that the writing is bad (I've got that polished),
it's that one of the main characters motivation never sat well with
me. Every time I made a pass over the manuscript I'd make a note to
fix her, and then I'd move on, never getting around to actually
fixing her problems.
Well, it got to the point where I could no longer ignore
her. Before I could fix anything else in the book, I had to figure
out what to do with Sarah. Her original motivation was guilt over
getting the protagonist, Erick, in trouble (and by trouble I mean
secret government conspiracy/world domination with a dash of super
powers trouble). But it didn't work, not sufficiently to explain
Sarah's willingness and desire to see things through to the bitter
end.
I tore her character apart, did a complete
deconstruction, and began anew. Much of her original character
traits, behaviors, quirks, and personality stayed the same. Her
essence on the other hand, her background and plot points (which were
weak or missing altogether before) all changed. Suddenly I had a
fuller, more dynamic character that matched and drove Erick's plot
development, rather than simply complimenting and adorning it.
It's refreshing, not having that nagging in the back of
my mind every time I think about Sarah. Now all I have to do is fix
Erick's family and I'm all set to begin the quest for an agent, and
ultimately a publisher.
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