by Tessa Radley
This has to be my most dreaded moment when I’m writing a book. It’s happens most frequently (but not always) after the story has come to a grinding halt. Sometimes it happens at the moment I’m complaining bitterly to those people who talk in my head—you know, the characters.
“So,” I say to my hero, “why on earth are you saying things I didn’t plan for you to say?” At times he broods and stays silent. I hate it when that happens. But sometimes something even worse happens…he tells me there’s something I need to know. How I detest that revelation.
This is the point of no return. The moment the story I’d planned takes on a totally different spin. And it’s hell for someone who is a plotter!
That missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle is usually so fundamental to one of my characters that the discovery can leave me feeling like banging my palm against my forehead. Why didn’t I see it before??? He’s divorced. Or my virgin heroine is not so virginal at all. He believes my heroine is someone else.
In SPANIARD’S SEDUCTION, available from Silhouette Desire this month, my hero decided he was an illegitimate Spaniard—and that meant a total re-plot of the book. Fortunately the revelation came fairly early on…
But there have been moments when that BIG moment revelation has come after the first draft of the book is finished. When relief has already settled over me and I’m chanting to myself, “It’s nearly done, wow, great!” And I actually THINK I’ve got it all figured—until I get that gentle tap on the shoulder, and the voice of a character I’ve come to know so well says, “Listen, there’s something I haven’t told you yet…”
Great. Just wonderful. And wouldn’t it have been a whole lot better to have known THAT three months and 250 pages ago? Yes? Or maybe not. Perhaps that’s what keeps me on the edge of my seat for every story; the belief that even though I know where I’m going…that might be the biggest fiction of all. It certainly puts a bit of suspense in every day! And that’s got to be good…right?
No related posts.
I love those surprises.
They can be a pain in the butt
but they often make the novel SO much stronger.
When your characters come alive enough to start arguing with you and rebelling — or finally spilling secrets you didn’t know before — that’s when you know you’ve done it right.
It’s annoying and gratifying at the same time.
Angie
I love those surprises but it can also make it difficult to sell on proposal – how do you know what the book is really going to be about until you write it? I admire those who can figure it out ahead of time but my characters love to surprise me. And those are some of the most satisfying moments for me.
At least they tell you around the time it’s finished. One of my characters who I killed off at the end of one of my stories and I’ve been sitting on for a few years now because it didn’t feel right finally got around to telling me, “By the way, I wasn’t supposed to die.” I love being on the edge of my seat, but sometimes I wish my characters would hurry up and spill the beans.
LOL Nancy, that’s awful!
And Tessa, I think you sum it up perfectly: “Perhaps that’s what keeps me on the edge of my seat for every story; the belief that even though I know where I’m going…that might be the biggest fiction of all.”
I finished my last novel, edited, and submitted it, only to realize that the story was only half over. *shakes head*
Ack, this is a great topic, because I just realized my heroine, who is a big talker in her own head, is hiding something behind all those words. I have no idea what it is. And I am NOT one of those people who believes my characters have a life of their own. Which means it’s ME hiding something from myself. Grr.
I love it when the story takes a turn I didn’t anticipate! Yes, it’s frustrating if the characters wait to let you the author know until the end (why are we always the last to know?), but I still enjoy them having a life of their own.
In my current NaNo book, I recently realized–halfway through the book–that my main character was Middle Eastern. In my last book, I discovered toward the end that my MC was under the (mistaken) impression that he was in direct communication with God.
I like to know that I don’t know everything.
Wow! I can’t believe that you don’t know the end when you start. I feel so enlightened. I may blog about this in my personal romance blog at http://atlastmylove.com
Kimber…I think it makes it stronger too. And I so often think “Why didn’t I see that earlier??”
Angie, I just wish they’d do it sooner rather than later. Then I can quit waiting for that eeek moment.
I think you’ve hit on one of the reasons we dread those moments, Kathy. We want to try and stay within the confines of that proposal. It would be soooh much neater and easier.
Oh my goodness, Nancy. Sounds like that’s a great character! Did you re-write the book??
Jess, that’s intriguing. I hope you got to write the rest of the story. Hmm…how does one handle that? As another book? Or revisions on the first book? This is a blog topic all on it’s own.
And Jessa, that’s equally fascinating. I love these comments…great to hear what other writers are experiencing.
Charity, it’s those discoveries that make the wip so exciting…even if it is as frustrating as anything when it happens.
I have to agree with you, Lauren. There’s so much more to talk about here.
Thanks everyone for dropping in and commenting.
Happy writing and reading.
Tessa
LOL That’s what I like about being a pantser. Those surprises are just part and parcel of my process. Writing the story is how I discover those layers. When I write, I know the start, something of the climax and maybe an event of two in the middle. But why they happen and how things lead up to them, I don’t know! When I discover those secrets, I just revise what I’d already written to weave in the hints of backstory.
I love the times when I wonder, why am I writing this scene? It’s extraneous…or worse, it’s gratuitous!
Then Something Else Is Revealed and I realize that other scene wasn’t gratuitous at all. My hind brain was working on it the whole time and it had plans.
I used to think I needed to have everything plotted out before I could start writing. These days, I’ve learned to trust my process.
Oh yeah, I love it when you have to rewrite the ending three times because getting that secret out of a closed mouth hero is like pulling teeth!
As someone who can’t plot more than 3 chapters ahead, I love those moments. I’ve discovered so many interesting things about my characters, and almost every time, everything I’ve written to that point works with only minor adjustments.
I rarely know the end of my books when I begin. A scary thought, often intimidating, but it also motivates me to keep going, the discovering what’s going to happen next.
Don’t you just hate it when that happens. You were lucky this time – I find it happens late in my stories.
Anthony