One Line

Happily, yesterday's writing session was much more productive than the previous one. I'm not about to count the words, but I definitely advanced the story. 

As you know, I rarely if ever plan things out. But yesterday in the shower (where my best ideas originate) I reviewed the last scene I'd written and sort of riffed on how it might play out. I came up with a line of dialogue that would shatter my main character's assumptions and I had to use it. It was perfect. Also perfect was the fact that readers would naturally assume from the setup that just the opposite would happen. I like that. One of my self-criticisms of past works is that events occurred "naturally". One step led to the next logical step. That's not good writing.

So, that line was going to go in, regardless of the fact that I had to travel a winding road to get there. 

And once it was written, the story took off. It set the stage for a bunch of unfortunate things happening to my main character in rapid order. Which led to tension. I may have overdone the calamities, but that's fixable. 

I left off with probably the worst event about to occur, and I may have to take another long shower to figure out how to pull it off without being melodramatic. It's going to drive future decisions and, if I do it right, it might make this story one worth reading.  

At first I wasn't really connecting with the protagonist. She was very vanilla. Optimism in itself isn't a bad trait, but complete cluelessness is aggravating. Maybe she had to suffer some blows before I could develop any empathy for her.

While I'm frustrated that it took so long to latch onto this story, I at least know I can still do it. And I'm now semi-excited about it. I've got kinks to work out, though. I had a whole scenario in mind that works well in a relationship sense, but might come off as a letdown after all the dramatics. Well, ideas are just that. 

Now I have a roadmap that's at last legible.