Jumping Through Hoops

Sometimes, it is just too easy to look at your book and be blind to the holes in the plot. For instance, I wanted to get my main character, Riaone, into the Praylanne township with certain companions and I jumped through too many complicated hoops to get her there. When I finally sat before my critique group, someone asked the simple question, "I wondered why she just didn't get her mom to take her dress shopping or something [to get Riaone into Praylanne]." Good question! Especially working with so many points of view (I am currently using five), I am going to overlook some things like, "What is So-and-so's motivation?" "Why would he allow such-and-such to happen?" "What did she mean by this line?" and, one that gave me the biggest surprise, "There is a lot of sexual tension between X and Y! I want to see them get together!" What?

The most important thing is to remain flexible. No, wait--the most important thing is to write, even if I am writing text that I will eventually cut or move. The second most important thing is to remain flexible. As long as I am nurturing the creative flow, I can use my output to make realizations about what isn't working, or submit it to the group so that they can tell me what isn't working.

I am lucky right now in that, despite all the tumultuous events that have been happening in my life recently, I have gotten over that recent stretch of not writing and am currently writing a lot, being self-aware enough to revisit key plot points, and making time for some good honest thought processes to occur. The best part is that I have a great critique group that I appreciate more and more. Even when I am blind to the obvious, the group is there to not only point that out to me so that I can get my book back on track, but also to praise what sounds good so that I can keep that up.

I have taken the critique of my sixth submission and had a great breakthrough this afternoon that I think will bring the right characters together and give some others some great development. I am laying some pretty good groundwork for future events. I'm at 48,000+ words now, and I see where the book might end. Wish me luck.