You’ve come up with an amazing idea for a novel, so what’s next? Part 2

While out walking with my Border collie, Lucy, the other day I thought about the plot for my next novel. I’ve been working on this manuscript for nearly a year now, and have got no further than Chapter eighteen. No doubt you’re wondering why I haven’t finished it.

There are two reasons.

Firstly, although I had completed The House on the Shore over two years ago and had been submitting it to agents, I decided to revise the manuscript – not once, but twice. This entailed adding some 24,000 words to the original manuscript, so what had started out as a 70,000 word single-title suspense romance finally became a 95,000 word novel. Did I make the right decision in revising the manuscript? You bet! It was published in February 2009 by Vanilla Heart Publishing.

The second reason for not completing my third novel is due in to the fact that I felt the plot was lacking something. The idea originally came to me while I was sitting on a beach on Gasparilla Island in January 2006. I knew the basic premise was sound. My characters have depth and by that I mean they are not one-dimensional – when I think about them, I can see them acting through the events I have planned for them. I can even imagine snatches of dialogue, and occasionally I dream about them. In other words, I know what makes them tick. They have the personality, wit, and intelligence to overcome the problems they encounter during the course of the novel.

So what was wrong with the plot and how did I rectify it?

By asking myself questions or playing “the what if game.” I already knew, “Who,” “Where” and “When,” but “What and “Why” eluded me. I knew how my story began and how it would end.

My problem was how to introduce my hero and make his meeting with the heroine plausible. Originally, I had planned to have my hero follow the heroine from the airport and then contrive to meet her by accident. But it didn’t feel right.

I put the manuscript to one side and worked on a short story. When that was complete, I emailed a friend who happens to be a fellow writer and we tossed ideas back and forth for a few days. I also tried to imagine what I would do if I were in a position similar to that of my heroine. It was only by doing this and asking myself questions that I finally reached a solution I was happy with. I re-wrote my plot outline – the key events and points I wanted to achieve during the course of the story. When I started writing again the words came easily.
If you don’t have a writing friend, someone you can bounce ideas off, I suggest you put aside your work-in-progress, and spend a few days away from the computer, or work on something else. If that fails, there are a number of excellent books on plotting; Goal, Motivation and Conflict by Debra Dixon, and Holly Lisle’s Plot Clinic are excellent. Both are guaranteed to get the imagination fired up and working.