Meredith Mansfield, Author

I’ve come to the conclusion that the problems I’m having getting traction with BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING have to do with story structure.

Now, I’m a discovery writer (I believe I’ve mentioned that a few times before), but a modified one. That is, I don’t outline the entire story before I start writing, but I do like to identify a few sign posts along the way so I can keep my story moving in the right direction. At a minimum, the inciting incident (where the story problem first crops up) and key event (where that story problem becomes more personal for the hero), the midpoint or turning point, and the climax. Mostly, from there, I sort of let the story structure flow instinctively and only double check it for pacing during the revisions.

I know all of these points for this story.

Or, more precisely, I know all of that for the main story line. But the problem is, this story doesn’t have a single central story and a couple of subplots. It’s a much more complex story structure.

What I have planned is something more like this:

My main character or hero, Gaian, has three possible destinies. Obviously, he can only fulfill one of them. But two other characters, let’s call them secondary heroes, will each fulfill one of the other two destinies. (One in a fairly typical heroic character arc, the other in a redemption arc.) And all of that has to come together for the climax to happen. So they have their own plots–and story structures–that are not subplots and have to braid into Gaian’s main plot.

Then there are a few other characters who will also have at least subplots of their own. A couple of them, like the antagonist, have plot lines that probably lie somewhere between a subplot and one of those three main plots.

And, though they all need to end at about the same time (the climax), they all start at different points–a couple of them twenty years after most of the others. No wonder I haven’t felt like the story was coming together properly.

So now what I think I need to do is step back a little and identify the main points of each of those plots/subplots–all the points: Inciting incident, key event, first plot point (turn into Act 2), first pinch point, midpoint/turning point/second plot point, second pinch point, third plot point (turn into Act 3), and the climax.

This doesn’t mean I have to stop writing while I do this, of course. This is a first draft and I’m still primarily in Gaian’s main plot.