Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Don't dig too deep

When I was writing Echoes, I came up with a great plot twist while in the shower. But (for those of you who haven't read it yet, I won't give anything away) I went too far. My original idea took on a life of its own and led the story in an entirely different direction.

This is a frequent problem for me. Tonight I was writing a husband-wife argument. Those are always fun. The problem is, I dug myself so deep--made the issues so important--that I couldn't find a way out.

I finally reached daylight, with a little cliffhanger because the problem isn't resolved, only tabled. Eventually, though, I will have to finish the argument. And someone is going to win. Maybe while I'm taking a shower in the morning I can find a win-win situtation. I doubt it.

The moral of all this is: Create conflicts for your characters. But always provide an escape hatch.

2 comments:

musicalchef said...

Sounds good! Will have to get the book to find out what you mean!

Norma Kassim PhD said...

very good tip