Martha Wells has a nice post about skidding to a halt.
“A plot problem, or plot stall, or writing yourself into a corner, is when you’re going along pretty good, writing your story, and you suddenly get stuck. You don’t know what’s going to happen next. Or the thing you wanted to have happen next doesn’t seem to make sense anymore. The story was going along smoothly, now it’s all awkward and bumpy and wrong.”
Yeah, yeah, been there, done that. This is what happened to make me pause with the H of S sequel, though I’m pretty sure I know the problem (wrong climax) which by some strange coincidence is the same thing that happened with HOUSE OF SHADOWS itself, where I wrote about forty pages leading up to and then right into the climactic scene and none of it worked and I took it back out and took the book in a completely different direction.
And then had to go back and lead up to the new climactic scene.
Which I expect I will have to do again, though not forty pages worth this time because this time I recognized the feeling of stuckness as a probable wrong direction. Plus I believe I have a reasonable idea what should happen instead, maybe.
Anyway, Martha Wells also works in a GAUDY NIGHT reference, so you should click through and read her post just for that. Because you’ve all read GAUDY NIGHT, yes?
Please Feel Free to Share:
