Plot changes and misbehaving characters

I have tidied the study. It is not completely organised, but much better. I am still typing at the dining room table but that means my editing notes are all exactly where I need them. I do not have to move things out of the way or hunt through piles. I am also set up so I know exactly what point I am at and organised the pages I have done so that changes can be made electronically. It makes it so much easier when it is all together and in a space I can spread out.

During my quiet weekend I spent time working on the weak plot of my first draft. I’m not reworking passages; it’s too early for that. I am creating new scenes that will fit in to help strengthen the plot and the characters. Early on in the first draft process, the main character had the vision of someone dying. It seemed a bit hard, but it did show just how different her world now was, and her place in it.

When it came to the crunch she couldn’t let the other character die and stepping in, despite my pleas, saved her. Characters don’t always behave how we hope they will, but they hopefully behave as they should. My characters often get away from the initial idea I have for a story, and usually they and the story are better for it.

I started thinking about at what point I would kill off this character, the one that I thought should die, but when I re-read the scene where she was saved I realised that my main character had done the right thing. She is too caring to allow that kind of death to happen, and given her skills and new position that is important too.

I am also trying to document some recent dreams. This is not something I do often, but occasionally I have a very vivid dream where the story stays with me for a number of days. I had one last night. I was keen to write it down straight away but found I remembered more of it when I just let it mull over in my mind. So I am letting it turn about and flesh itself out and then I might put it down on paper as a short story. Once dream started to flesh itself out enough to be the beginning of a novel, so who knows where it may lead.

Happy Scribbling