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*waves hand around* Yes, yes…I know I said I’d see you all next year, but this is a question that couldn’t wait any longer.
Currently, I’m trying to write a novel. Too many novels actually, which is where this problem came up. You see, I finished Sector One, so I’m trying to write the sequel to it. But I’m 71,000 words in with 30,000 more to go, and I’ve come to a horrible revelation. The plot for the sequel is awful. They just get captured over and over again. I mean, my villains have more depth than my heroes–two of the villains have character arcs.
Villains 2
Heroes 0So what should I do? I can’t seem to find a new plot for this sequel, not yet at least. Should I take a break form it for a while and go ahead and work on another novel (I have two other novels I can work on.) or should I finish this one up and fix it later? Should I rethink the plot and completely rewrite it? Because if I have to do that, I’m going to write one of the other ideas first. Any thoughts on what I should do with the book that repeats itself?
Or is it fine and I just don’t know it?
@daeus @kate-flournoy @aratrea @catwing @dekreel @shannon @emily @epicaddie2 @daughteroftheking @sam-kowal*returns to subspace*
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@dragon-snapper I doubt that it will be necessary to completely rewrite the whole novel. You know the third book in The Ascendance Trilogy is sort of like that. Jaron just keeps getting captured over and over again. He breaks out, and he gets captured, or comes close to getting captured again. But it is still a really great story. There is a point and a reason for him getting captured. If your MC’s get captured too many times, take out a few times they get captured.
If you haven’t done the KP character questionnaire for your heroes, then you should. Really build off of that. It’ll definitely help your characters to have a purpose and more depth. Before I took the questionnaire for my MC, I had no theme, or even basic plot, really. Now, it helped me with my theme, my plot, and the depth of my characters. Each character should have a purpose and in some way they should help play out both the plot and the theme.
A break is always a good idea too, though. 😀 It’s nice to come back with a refreshed mind to something you haven’t done for a while. Maybe, if you took a break, you could have somebody else read it and tell you from their point of view whether or not it’s repetitive. It’s always good to have more than one point of view on stuff. I tend to be super critical of my work. I read over what I’ve written and I think, “This is terrible! I give up!” I give it to my parents to read, “Wow, Emily! That’s great! One of your best stories yet!” Ok, maybe I exaggerated a little. XD
Hope some of my ramblings above make sense. XD
@dragon-snapper I really don’t have any advice, but I second @Emily said, it’d be a good idea to ask for other’s opinions.
Blog: https://weridasusual.home.blog/
It’s obvious! Make the entire story about the villains, not the heroes! Change the point of view and focus in laser sharp on your villains character arcs. Villains deserve more attention anyway 😀
Well, seeing it’s a sequel, that might not actually work. Too bad.
If I were you, I would definitely take a break and work on something else. What I do doesn’t always work out for me, though, so my ADVICE would be to finish it, but not rewrite it yet. After that, go work on something else. Then come back and decide whether to a) edit it or b) rewrite it or c) melt another chair.
Although, if you’ve realized the plot is bad then you might not have the inspiration to work on the rest, in which case you might just want to work on something else.
If you’re going to rewrite it, you might want to save yourself 30,000 words and not finish. So in that case, maybe work on something else and then come back to it and rewrite it.
So, in the end, maybe just ignore my advice about finishing it and let it stew on its own for awhile
*Giarstanornarak tries to melt chair*
Also, Daeus has 22 turtles in his signature.@dragon-snapper I think taking a break might be a good idea. Whether you want to finish up this draft depends on the kind of person you are. If not finishing it is more discouraging, then definitely finish it. But if you’re going to end up hating the plot and feeling like you’re wasting time by finishing it, I’d take a break.
What Emily said bout getting someone else to read it is a good idea. Still, if I were you, I’d step away from that novel for a little bit. Maybe when you come back, you’ll find the plot isn’t so bad, or perhaps your subconscious will come up with some ways to fix the plot while you’re taking a break 🙂
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