October has become a busy month in my professional life. I’m a pastor and started serving a new small church in June. I’m only supposed to work 20-25 hours a week. Not this past week nor this coming week! Last week also included the out-of-town funeral for a very dear friend in her late eighties. She was such a vibrant woman, full of zest and fun. She’ll leave a big hole in her family’s lives and I will miss her.
a fish can’t see the water it swims in
Janice Hardy’s post on Friday at the Writers in the Storm blog spoke to me. She described almost exactly what I’ve been doing as I write and edit and revise my story.
Photo by David Clode on Unsplash
I knew I needed more tension. So I added conflict.
I knew I needed more than a societal antagonist. So I added a person who represented that societal evil.
I knew, since I have a braided story, that I needed to create connecting links between the two stories. My crit partners loved that bit.
But I’m still not getting it all together.
How do I know?
When I draft a query and send it to crit partners or when I put out my first page to be critiqued, I don’t receive applause. Instead, there are questions and confusion. Gah!
“It’s possible you’re lost because you’re not sure what that main problem is yet, or only have a vague sense of the premise. Being fuzzy about what the goals are will make if difficult to know what needs to happen in your scenes.”
Of Rabbits and warrens
Photo by Izumi LaCorte on Unsplash
Janice spoke so clearly to my situation, referring to goals not being full developed. She provided a link and I found a whole series!
Off I went, down the rabbit holes she provided
One of those holes was a whole warren full of wonderful tidbits of information!
15 Plot Fixers
Kara Lennox a.k.a. Kara Leabo wrote a series about Fixing Plots.
Briefly, she lists potential problems a debut author might struggle with.
The posts are from 2012-2013, from the Writers in the Storm blog.
A weak premise
How to fix a weak opening (cute meet does not a plot make, starting in the wrong place)
Lack of clear cut goals (this is the blog Janice referenced)
Is your conflict strong enough (weak conflict, too many conflicts)
Raising your stakes
Your plot moves to slowly
How to pick up the pace of your story (saggy middle, plot moves too fast)
Is your plot too predictable
Plots that rely on coincidence and contrivance
Loss of focus (weak black moment, ending does not satisfy)
And there we go! Happy October studies!