Thursday, November 02, 2006

It Shouldn't Be This Painful

I hate my stupid contemporary. I hate my stupid characters. Hate them. Okay maybe hate is a strong word. Fine. I just loathe and despise them with the burning intensity of a thousand suns.

My hero doesn't even have a name. Right now I'm calling him Chase-Dillon-Iain-Nick. He's having a serious identity crisis and I can't help him because every time I try he changes who he is. And now, out of nowhere, he has a son. And his motivations are different. And suddenly the whole story is changing and I don't know what anyone's motivations and conflicts are anymore, no idea what is driving this story or how it will end. And don't even get me started on what is supposed to happen in the middle.

I miss Dash. Yeah, sure, it was kind of a stupid name, but the story made sense when he was here. It had purpose. A beginning, a middle, an end. But now suddenly I have to shave off at least 25,000 words and change my hero's name and I seem to have lost the story in the process. Not to mention my ability to see this thing with any kind of clarity.

There is the seed of a story floundering somewhere in my brain but I can't seem to get it to take root. It keeps bouncing around like a Mexican jumping bean.

Makes me want to smash it to bits with a mallet and make hummus out of it.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

I like hummus. But in all seriousness, maybe you're trying to change too much all at once? Kind of like my friend who started to renovate her kitchen and then proceeded to rip apart the entire top floor of her house. I would leave your hero's name as Dash until you trim down the story. Or fix the motivations...or make hummus.

Kelly Boyce said...

I think the threat to make hummus must have loosened something in my brain. I wrote my blog post, went upstairs to get dressed for work, and while I was hanging upside down brushnig out my hair I had an epiphany. Not on the name, but on a major plot point that steamlined so much of the first half of the book.

I ran downstairs, grabbed the alphie and started typing like mad so I could get it down before I reached the point of being seriously late for work.

Whew...I should threaten to make hummus more often.

Maxx said...

No. Don't make hummus. I don't like hummus. A nice dill dip would be smashing though.

Melissa Amateis said...

Who knew that brushing your hair would lead to an epiphany? ;-) Glad it did, though!

Tess said...

Mmmmmm, hummus. I LOVE hummus.

Glad to hear about your epiphany! Sometimes I think just letting go for a bit and thinking of something else can really help :-)

Unknown said...

Crab dip is nice too. . .

Anonymous said...

Hang in there, Kelly! Hopefully you can get everything together. Glad the epiphany came through. :)

Lexi said...

Take a deep breath and repeat after me: "I think I can, I think I can. Oh hell, I know I can!"

Anonymous said...

Hang in there! It sounds like you are on your way with those revisions.

You got your Alphie? Cool. Is it everything you hoped and wished it would be? Hope so. :-)

MJFredrick said...

Oh, honey. I'm so there with you. Good luck on the streamlining!