I have a lot of respect for people who can focus on and write just one story at a time. Tons and tons. There are days I’m envious of your dedication to the single tale.
I’m not one of those people. If I get stuck on something – either I can’t figure out how to fix it, or I’m waiting for feedback – I have to work on something else. Sometimes I can just go to a different chapter in the same novel, but frequently I just pull up a different novel. I try and limit myself to two at a time, though.
The problem comes when I’m really, really stuck on the story I should be working on, so I neglect in favor of the other tale. And then I start to wonder if that means I don’t love the old story enough. And then I slide into “If I just deleted this, and that, and that over there…”
I tend to walk away when I start thinking that deleting things is the only answer. Because…I don’t want to delete everything.
Which is where I’m stuck right now. I have a couple of issues with one of my stories that aren’t like vast, sweeping things. They don’t require me to rewrite large portions of the book. In fact, they really only need some tweaks here and there. But I can’t wrap my brain around them, so I keep avoiding them and going back to the story I know the answers to. The one that doesn’t require world-building and in which the entire plot doesn’t rest on being able to explain two or three individual points clearly.
I mean, technically it does. But it’s a lot easier to explain “Riley wants more than a one night stand, Zane doesn’t.” Than it is to explain “Kali and Aurael share a body, because Aurael is an angel that was created three hundred years ago to destroy gods and she’s not very good at her job and now there’s this ring that Vulcan created and the entire effect is like this whole multiple personality thing and the only reason it even happened is because there’s this spear, and Lucifer needs to get his hands on it but doesn’t have the most clear road map on how to do so, because mapquest was down that day…”
See the difference? (And yeah, that second bit is meant to be confusing. Here at least. It would be really nice if it made more sense in my story, but it doesn’t yet).
So part of me really wants to just delete this character, rather than try and figure out how to explain her. But the reason she’s in the story is because she’s basically foreshadowing for 75% of what happens in the next 300 pages.
What do you do when you try and over and over again to explain something in your writing and still can’t nail the details?
I take a break, and like you, write or work on a different story. Until an epiphany would come to me and show me the answer to my problem.
Good luck, and I hope that you’ll figure it out soon. 🙂
I walk away for a while. Do something else. Write something else. The problem keeps ticking away at the back of my mind, and eventually it usually works its self out. Usually….
I’m sure you’ll figure it out.
lol I wish I could focus on multiple projects! my brain isn’t programmed that way. I have hard times writing short stories that aren’t set in the world I’m writing, THAT’s how focused I am while drafting. ;D
also, I take a break. I read books. I watch TV/movies. I exercise–a lot. I let my brain try to figure it out. good luck!
Well, would taking her out of the story make it stronger? It doesn’t sound like it will, but you have to consider it from all angles before the idea will pop up that makes everything click. Keep considering new ways to approach things and add, subtract, change and it will come.
Back up suggestion: talk it out with someone in great detail. They might see something that you don’t. This might work even better than the above.
Like you – I often have to walk away, and sometimes work on another project.
I pretty much throw the confusing stuff at the Husband and promise to make him cookies if he fixes it. He’s an engineer. It’s what I pay him for.
Or if you don’t have an engineer on hand, you could always make a list of bullet points and see if you can sprinkle parts of the list here and there throughout the narrative. 😉
I do what you do, move on and come back. Move on and come back. Repeat.
You’re combining 2 books, so that makes things extra hard. Some subplots may have to bite the dust if the ‘big picture’ doesn’t need them or if you can come up with another, simpler way to get the plot points across.
The only reason I stay focused on one story at a time is ’cause my brain’s not big enough for two! No, seriously. Absence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder for me, and I lose empathy for old characters if I move on to new projects.