Meredith Mansfield, Author

Well, it was bound to happen. It’s just the opposite of what I expected.

As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, I’m about two-thirds of a discovery writer. Even when I’ve tried to write a chapter-by-chapter outline, I ignored it completely once I started to write and went where the story and the characters wanted to lead me. So, I don’t put myself through that anymore.

At the same time, my second book (now shelved) broke me of the idea of writing entirely by the seat of my pants. I require a few milestones before I’ll actually start writing. Generally, that’s the central conflict, the inciting incident, and the climax at a minimum. Better yet to have an idea of the first and second try/fail cycles, too. Enough of a road map, generally, to keep me from going too far off into the weeds with still enough freedom to discover some fun and exciting things along the way.

It’s not a guarantee, though. Well, nothing is, in writing or any other creative endeavor.

I’ve written myself into a bit of a corner on BLOOD IS THICKER. I know what needs to happen next. I just haven’t figured out why my characters would do that. From where I’ve go them now–and I like what leads up to this point–I just don’t see their motivation. I have to let my subconscious play with that and bubble up a few ideas. There needs to be something that pushes them back out. I have the beginnings of a notion of what that should be. If it works out, it’ll tie nicely into a subplot I started a few chapters ago. And that’ll strenghten the whole thing.

I know that I will eventually find the way out of this corner because I’ve done it before. I had the unfortunate experience last week of being stopped on both projects. MAGIC’S FOOL wasn’t really in a corner, though. I was just working out one of the new combined characters.

So, in the interim, I started work on the query for SEVEN STARS even though I don’t plan to start querying that until around March. It’s never too soon to start that because queries take a lot of polishing.

And then MAGIC’S FOOL came together in my head. I see my way clear to the ending now. Most likely I’ll go ahead and finish that while I let my subconscious play with the problem in BLOOD IS THICKER. 

What’s surprising is that MAGIC’S FOOL was the one I was struggling with because it’s a rewrite. I was deeply insecure about this one. Now I see pretty clearly exactly what I need to do. Not only to get to the end, but also what elements will need to be strengthened in the second draft. And I’m not worried about it anymore. This rewrite is going to work!

I really expected it to be BLOOD IS THICKER that grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and made me finish it first. Goes to show you never can tell.