What do you do when...

your manuscript takes another turn -- a turn in another direction? Do you go with the flow? Do head back to the drawing board? Do you jot down the idea/concept and continue on the original path?

I've been writing away, making so much progress. Then all of a sudden, I get a new concept and it takes me in a direction not suitable for the characters or the storyline I've been writing about all along. What in the hell do I do now? Please advise.

That's a hard one to answer. Really it depends on you. It's your story, and you have to decide what you want to do with it.

I would think these could be your options:
1. Use the new concept in a new story where it fits with the characters and storyline.
2. Adapt the concept to fit the storyline and characters.
3. Adapt the characters/storyline to fit the concept.
4. Put it in there anyway and see how your characters/storyline adjust the concept.

It's all up to you and what you feel is important for this tale. To quote our favorite uncle, "Does it work?"

I've had this happen to me on occasion. It's a good thing, I think.

This happens to me when I find myself deeply immersed in the story.

When I first began writing fiction, I'd take my characters and "force them" to do thinks, like they were marionettes. It never worked.

As I grew in skill, I then learned to create situations, place my characters into the plot, and sit back and see what happens. In effect, I was taking dictation, just being an observer.

Naturally this is all happening inside the brain. What a complex joy we all have between our ears! I'd actually separate the story events from my immediate consciousness and detach myself.

This aids the creativity, as you've now learned.

My suggestion -- SAVE your current story progress in case you need to go back. Don't delete any files. Then let it flow, write your tail off, and see what comes out the other side. It will most likely be far better than any "forced" plotline.

The end result will probably be a blend, because the "forced plot" does have some possible advantages -- more coherence, more detailed history line, etc. So you can take the best elements from both threads, the carefully planned thread and the impusive one, and use the best from each.

When I'm making big changes in a story line, or when I "feel it coming on", I save successive versions. For example, my most recent novel "Full Circle" will have maybe a dozen incomplete files in a computer folder: "full01.doc", full02.doc" etc. I simply "Save As" with an incremented file name, to keep all the various interim versions.

Keep us posted on the results!

Prefaced with all the usual disclaimers (FWIW, YMMV, IMHO):

If it truly is not suitable to your current characters, then it probably doesn't belong. Don't let an idea that doesn't work hijack your current story. Write it down in a separate file (or notebook or index card, depending on how you put stories together). Get it out of your system, then go back to your WIP. Hang on to the idea and use it in your next story.

Jen

At present, I'm on the internet, particularly Amazon.com, skimming over the sysnopsis of various novels in hopes to gain some inspiration -- or become more confused.

My fear is that the new direction means my 30 pages are trash. This is so frustrating. I wish I could go to sleep for a week and have my manscript written when I wake up.

You said:

it takes me in a direction not suitable for the characters or the storyline I've been writing about all along.

Click to expand...

So it's not suitable for the characters? Or it is what the characters want but not what "you" want?

If you find yourself throwing in ideas that take you somewhere else but it has nothing to do with your characters, then you have a problem.

Now if it's just events you throw in or situations, and you want to see how your characters react to them, then it's a good thing. It's nice to be surprised. And who knows, maybe the unscheduled events really take your book somewhere exciting. If it really is going places, then keep going and let your characters and events take you places -- you may end up some place far more wonderful than you ever dreamed of. Keep your ending in mind, though, if you still want the story to get to a certain destination.

I've always used my road trip analogy. You may find yourself going places you've not expected or taking a detour... it's exciting, unpredictable and fun... just keep in mind where you want to go. It's okay if you end up in San Jose instead of San Fransisco, but if you end up in Minnesota, you may want to ask yourself: "Is it really where I want to end up?"

"It's alive! It's alive!" Congratulations. Really. When things take off like that, it often means your work has taken on a life of its own and you, the proud creator, can now step back and watch it grow. (Unless, of course, it goes off killing people, and then you gotta take the torches to the tower.)

And about the fear of your thirty pages going to waste? Phillip Roth says he often writes a hundred pages before he comes to a page where he goes, "Oh, this is where it should start," and tosses out everything that came before it.

My fear is that the new direction means my 30 pages are trash.

Click to expand...

Shoot, wait until the new direction takes place at 330 pages instead of just thirty.

My own opinion is that you're usually better off taking the new direction and just finishing the novel. If there are problems, well, that's what second drafts are for. Thirty pages is nothing. Most first drafts are greatly improved if you throw out the first thirty pages, anyway.

This is where having a "detour notebook" would come in handy. (Or "detour computer document." I have a separate document of rejects from my finished manuscript.) I talk about "detour notebooks" in my new book but there's a quote in there by Peter Bowerman I'm going to toss in: "Let the story take you where it will."

Seriously, if your story takes a 360-degree turn, run with it. DON'T put this into your current document (unless it's not your final draft) but try it and see what happens. See what new adventures await you and your characters.

And if it doesn't work out? At least now you will know.

It can often take

30 pages to find out where the novel really should start. go with the flow--most times it is clear when you read a book if the writer was in "flow" or not and IMHO the books written that way are far better for it.

Shawn

Re: It can often take

It's better to write 30 pages of "trash" because you think it's taking you some place than not knowing whether that some place exists...

Heck, I cut almost 80 pages from my first novel in a subsequent rewrite because it was wrong (okay, not really wrong; it was just a bad start). And the novel is now sold. Writing is a process. Seldom do you get it right on first try.

Re: It can often take

Just remember to finish what you start. Don't get lost in a tangle of new concepts that never let you reach "The End".

a new concept and it takes me in a direction not suitable for the characters or the storyline I've been writing about all along.

Click to expand...

I'm just curious to know more detail. If the concept arose from what had happened so far, how can it not be suitable for the characters? How can it not be suitable for the storyline?

Is it something like... you were writing a mystery and suddenly it occurs to you that Aliens, or magic, could be involved? Does it suddenly turn half your good characters into bad guys?

FWIW,

I write by the seat of my pants so all the twists and turns I never saw coming are the same things the reader will not see coming.

As to your dilemma with the turn coming in that doesn't fit--write it anyway and keep going. Is it simply a scene that turned and thirty pages resulted or is it thirty pages unto itself with separate characters (even if you're currently calling them by names in your WIP) and the whole bit? If it is the former, then your story is taking an unexpected turn, and were I you, I would see where it goes. If it is the latter case, save it in a separate file, then return to your WIP. To me, these are gifts, the opening of a second novel, something to go to after you've finished the first. I have five such openings on file now, waiting for me, with two more ideas cooking in my fertile brain.

Another interesting thing happened to me, which may be happening to you, or perhaps you can relate to this at any rate. During the writing of the sequel in my series Elijah, two scenes showed up back to back near the end of the book that I knew did not belong, however, I left them there and finished the novel. Later, when I went to write the third and fourth novels in the Elijah series, I realized I had already written the openings, which were the two back to back scenes I'd left in the second. When I removed them from the sequel, the story flowed seamlessly and of course, the third and fourth novels grew out of those two back to back scenes that didn't fit.

Just write. Your heart knows the way.

Mari

Quote: Seriously, if your story takes a 360-degree turn, run with it.

Ok - I know I'm being a stickler, but what happens when you turn around 360 degrees...

I keep going...

I once had a science fiction short story turn into a piece about heart break simply because my muse led me into that direction.

If I had let my critical factor in while this was happening, I would've stopped writing, taken a break and come back later to redo the whole thing.

Instead, I went with the flow and later took the new material out of the old story and made a new one with it.

The new story became one of my best pieces.

I never finished the science fiction piece...

- Anatole

Re: I keep going...

I've had this happen w/my current project. My main character has evolved, others too in the progress of the book. I might mention I've just restarted it after a brief hiatus lol, but it the interim time the characters have become different to a certain degree.