Like so many newbies, I jumped into the
deep end and starting wildly flailing my arms and legs thinking I was
going to be the next Michael Phelps. Who needs training and practice
when you're a natural, eh? Well I do.
Everyone who read the early chapters of
Project IK was pretty positive about my writing. They said I wrote
compelling scenes and likable characters. Score! But what they didn't
know was that I had no idea where I was going. I was completely
pantsing it, that is writing by the seat of my pants (some people
call this discovery writing). I'm not here to say pantsing is bad, if
that's what works for you, awesome, go for it! What I am saying is
that fully pantsing isn't for me.
One of the problems I got myself into
was that my main character was directionless. He had no goal, no
ambition, and was essentially adrift at sea, while the supporting
cast was awesome. Why are we reading about this boring guy when
everyone else is more interesting?
This led to the second problem of not
knowing what the ending of my story would be. I don't mean that I was
having trouble with the details, or tying everything together. I mean
I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen, not even a
direction I was working toward.
This then led to my third problem, the
kitchen sink. I tried to stuff every cool idea I had into one story,
and without the overarching narrative to tame it, it all just got
away from me. Perhaps some day I will write a story that includes
monks, secret societies, brothers, ghosts, a sea witch, werewolves,
fae, and giant cat people, but that day is not today.
It exploded in a hundred different
directions while the main character sat there like a lump. It has
unfortunately gotten to the point where I have no reasonable choice
but to shelve Project IK. But I have learned some important lessons
and have begun on a new venture which I have dubbed Project Silver.
Project Silver is simpler. It follows
the story of a single character instead of a multi-threaded and
intertwined storyline. I think this will help a new writer like
myself be more focused. I have an outline (GASP!). I have a very
clear understanding of my protagonist's goals and where I want the
story to end up, while still leaving plenty of room for my pantsing
tendencies to express themselves as I put meat on the bones of my
outline.
Wish me luck!
