by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Now that it is January 1st, 2023, I have two immediate goals ahead of me — begin writing the second draft of my first novel in earnest and to start to make a dent in the small library of unread books I have around the house.
In just the last day or so, it has really begun to hit home how passive my proganoist has been in different version of this novel to date. Rather driving the plot forward, she had been pretty much just drifting through the story reacting to things that happened to her.
Now that I realize the error of my ways, I am revamping the story to make it clear that the story is progressing specifically because of the drive and desires of my heroine. This has required some serious fancy footwork in some respects but it’s worth it. I just have to accept that I am going to have to re-imagine the story in some unexpected ways.
But this is making for a far, far better story overall. It’s just passive nature of my heroine was right there in front of my face all along and because I don’t have a Reader I didn’t realize it existed. I definitely find myself being a little insecure about my writing these days because of all of this.
Another major problem with the novel remains word count. I just have too many scenes, if each scene is, on average, expected to be 1,000 words. But, in real terms, I continue to be relatively early in the process because I still have the beta reader (and potentially editor) part of things to get through.
And, yet, overall, I’ve definitely fallen in love with these characters — especially my heroine. She’s real bad ass. She’s got a lot of drive now. One thing I have to be careful about it giving her enough slack to grow as a character so she doesn’t come across as some sort of “Mary Sue.” I need her to be imperfect enough to be relatable from the get-go and have potential wiggle room to change and grow as the story unfolds.
