Hello! In the six months or so since I last wrote about my writing, what have I actually written?
Generally, if I’m writing fiction then I’m not writing here in the Gyre. The converse is also true: I’ve posted more in the last six weeks than in the previous six months and consequently have barely written a word of fiction.
In my last #AmWriting update I’d completed a novella in just three (three!) weeks. I’ve subsequently sent that to an agent with fingers crossed (but more in hope than expectation, obvs.).
Since then? Well, my Engineer stories have been building to a climax. The seventh and (for now, at least) final adventure will complete this story arc for my taciturn cosmic technician and his new travelling companions. But I’ve come up against my usual problem: how to write a longer-form narrative?
I first jotted notes for this story in June, and that’s ten months ago. Since then I’ve written – and scrapped – a prologue, and written – and so far kept – two short early chapters, both of which merely dance around the main drive of the story. So I took a break from thinking about the Engineer, and – usually a bad sign – had a look to see if I had any old things which could be dusted off and improved or completed.
What did I find?
Between 2014 and 2019 I was working on a secondary-world fantasy novel. I posted bits and pieces about it here. I got over 200 pages in before writing myself into a corner and running out of steam (to mix metaphors). But there was still much about that world that I liked: indeed, much about the novel that was good. I re-read it and was still happy with some of it, but it would require a huge amount of work to fix. Nonetheless, last month I wrote a short story – very short, only 5,000 words or so – set in that world, which I’m quite happy with. It’s useful, if you’re struggling to write one thing, to be able to switch to something different: it keeps the words flowing, stops you getting rusty and just as importantly reminds you (or persuades you) that you’re not washed-up and useless. This story did all that.
But that was over a month ago now, and still Engineer #7 doesn’t slot into place.
Why not? There are a few reasons that I can identify.
One: I have some exciting new characters, but can’t decide whether they fit into this story or need their own adventure.
Two: I know – broadly – what happens in this story: what it’s ‘about’. Elevator pitch? No problem. But when I try to plot it, or even write a synopsis, in my head it seems to come to a standstill. For a while I thought that was the fault of the setting: in short, lots of people descend on one particular spot, and then…inertia; it felt like everything sort of stopped there, far too quickly. I came up with an exciting fix for that, but still the story lacked all forward motion. That made me think the real problem was with the characters who inhabited this setting: the luckless victims of an initial event. A combination of these characters and their situation seemed to suck all momentum out of the story.
Of course, you might be shouting at the screen: “but characters are what make the story! They aren’t just pawns to be moved around inside a clockwork plot!” And you’d be right. But if they don’t convince you, the writer, they sure as hell won’t convince anyone else.
So I have to ditch them. It isn’t the first time: years ago I was thirty pages into a novel which also ran out of steam. I removed the main character and twenty-odd pages and discovered that there was a really good haunting little short story buried in it after all, which subsequently got published. The moral, I suppose is: don’t be precious. “Kill your darlings” need not refer just to the finely-crafted phrase, but entire characters, too.
Into the Gyre 