Oh! That’s the Problem!
There’s this story that I’ve been stuck on for two years.
I keep going back and trying to make some progress . . .
And out of the blue, the reason I’m stuck . . . slapped me upside the head.
See? At it’s absolute most basic, the form of a story is pretty simple.
- Here’s the Character(s
- Here’s a problem that matters to the Character
- Here’s how they solved the problem
- Here what the Character is like, and the Character’s life afterwards.
So I’ve got this thing going on—a Census of a Multi-Cross-Dimensional Empire with important political ramifications.
But that’s not the problem.
Because my Main Character is a summer intern at the census bureau. And she’s got problems of her own.
So why am I stuck? Well, I just handed her the answer to her main two problems, with minimal effort on her part . . . and the census project just wandered off doing fun things . . . of no particular importance because the Story Problems were already solved, and fun census adventures were really nothing but the background.
Oh Dear. Big rewrite in my future.
It makes me wonder if some Real Life Problems aren’t being recognized as being the background, while that actual problems are being overlooked. Will have to ponder on this.
And put stickers on my calendar to remind me of which Friday is mine. Mean time, new book out, and one ready for next month.
Mad Genius Club 
6 responses to “What’s the Problem?”
The real life thing is hitting me at home right now with my wife. She’s having issues at work with some co-workers, and just had a big fallout with her best friend of the last 20 years. She’s spent all of her home time crying and saying everyone hates her, no one loves her, her career is over, no one wants to work with her, and there won’t be any job openings in the district for this fall…. She can’t get out of her own head and see the good things, or that what’s going on is really pretty small in context (other than the thing with her friend). The big problems, like paying bills and keeping the house/cars up, she’s not worried about at all. This week has been tough at home. Hoping next week is better.
Yeah, job stress is tough on both the principal and family! BTDT, from the spouse side. My better half twice had coworkers drive him to the ER because he thought he was having a heart attack.
Had the opposite problem with *A Diabolical Bargain*. Got to what I thought was the end, it wasn’t the end, thought up another and got to it, and it wasn’t the end, and thought a third and *finally* Nick agreed that would resolve it.
That’s one reason why what snuck up on me as a novelette turned into my first novel.
Wretched Characters thinking they know better than the writer . . .
I’ve been looking forward to that census book ever since you posted the first bit at the end of one of your others. I hope you get your characters to behave properly so you can finish it
Or better still, behave improperly.