Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48036
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

About eight years ago, I began writing a fantasy novel. Then something else came up, so I put it down for about two years. I returned to the novel eventually and finished and published it. What helped me do this was the worldbuilding notes (maps, bestiary, Character descriptions, plot ideas) that I had stored. I made many changes to my original conception, though most of the important plot points were the same.

The most important change was stepping back, looking at my heroine carefully, and deepening her characterization, exposing several flaws that would factor into the plot significantly.

Years later, I am at it again. I started a sequel to that novel and wrote the first half (about the trolls that live under Boston's Zakim bridge). I put that aside two years ago to write a nonfiction book. Now that the nonfiction book is published, I am returning to the novel.

The technique that has enabled me to do this has deepened over the years. For my most recent two books, I started using an Index Card app for my ipad. I make virtual cards that can be rearranged at will. I make one stack for each category: research topics, character sheets, setting descriptions, backstory, story timeline, chapter plot ideas, Bibliography references, you name it. I can even attach images to the cards. This enables me to put projects down and pick them up with ease.

The card system is very flexible. I can add ideas in any order when I brainstorm, so I don't lose them.

As for character discovery, I trust my subconscious. I had a throwaway character in one scene in my previous fantasy (_A Most Refined Dragon_). Her role was to make the heroine a little jealous. But then I got to liking this minor character, so I enlarged her role and put her in a situation where she was vulnerable and the hero began to fall for her. To make things worse, I made it so the heroine needed this woman's father to be her lawyer in her murder trial. All this tension and conflict arose by chance, but as it emerged, I deepened it intentionally. It was better than if I had planned it.

In my current novel, I stopped writing just before the day of a big armored car heist, the disaster just before the climax. All my plans for the heist and how the good guys act as they try to stop it were logical, complex, with interesting plot twists, but emotionally unsatisfying. That is probably why I stopped writing. I knew in my heart that all the good character developoment that I had achieved in the middle of the story would be wasted if I wrote the end as I had planned.

Coming back to it after an absense, I saw a new way. The robbery can proceed mostly as planned, but the hero and heroine will suffer a crisis in their relationship and strike out separately and at cross purposes, nearly destroying everything. I haven't written it yet, but it feels right. So in your writing, make sure that the character relationships have as much drama as the plot.

Original score: 8