No, not the painful ones we tell each other. My book! Yesterday I mentioned that I figured out my plot. I wanted to expand on that today. It may seem like a minor thing to some people, but to fellow writers and to those who know me, this is a MAJOR accomplishment!
I have always been a plot heavy writer. I get the characters first, but then the plot ideas take over to the point where I can definitely see my story on the big screen with today's movie stars portraying my brave and sexy hero and heroine. Then the reality comes in and I have to figure out what really works (no, that building blowing up won't happen without the school janitor villain getting access to explosives. And how will he do that????). THEN I start to figure out who the characters are and what their internal conflicts are. Usually, the internal conflicts are the most difficult aspect of a book for me.
With Lies, the internal conflicts came fairly easily. The external conflict eluded me. I had aspects of the characters that I knew in my gut had to stay in the story, but a whole bunch of stuff could be scrapped if needed. I knew my hero was a bounty hunter. I tried to change it a few times, but I always came back to this career path for him. It felt right. And you know what? In the end, it IS right. Another problem came when I had scenes that weren't plausible. The scene itself worked, but its place in the story did not and no matter how I tried to fix it or place it somewhere else, the square block would not fit into the round hole!
When I wrote the first draft in November during NaNoWriMo I had the same issues, but I kept writing to see what I could come up with, what my characters would tell me. Their biggest suggestion was to trust them. So I did. I did not panic....much. I let it go. I asked for help. I wrote the 2nd draft with a different plot in mind. Then I wrote the 3rd draft, or most of it anyway, with 2 different plots in mind. I then did start to panic a bit because it was the end of the 3rd draft and I wanted this book to be finished in April. But my hero whispered to me again to trust him. So I did...again. And he came through for me!
So now, I'm on a quest to finish this book by the first week in April. I'll send it to my FANTABULOUS CPs, query an editor and hopefully, if all goes according to plan, I'll be submitting this book by the end of April.
Of course, that won't happen unless I get off the Internet and get to work!
