Lowering the Boom

I am writing this blog more for myself than for my readers. I’ve been working on the novel Old Friends & Other Strangers for almost ten years now. It started after reading Graven Images by Paul Fleischman, a YA novel that consisted of three scary short stories. By this time, I had completed a number of children’s stories which weren’t getting much traction, so I decided to try Fleischman’s approach and link four of them together. I renamed the characters, made the plots overlap, and then ordered them by seasons starting in autumn and ending a year later. La voila! Old Friends and Other Strangers.

But the novel never felt right. The first change came when my protagonist, Wendy Weller, got into my head and challenged the ending. Originally, the parents came in and saved the day. Wendy stepped up and reminded me it was a young adult novel and that she and her friends could manage by themselves, thank you very much.

The second major change came when my beta readers didn’t like that I killed off one of the characters and his dog. Apparently, you don’t kill the dog, but you especially don’t get rid of a character your readers love. So, I rewrote the novel.

Next, I realized that I had too many “old friends” in the story. Again, it was supposed to be a YA novel, and I began to realize my audience would lose interest. So, I rewrote the novel again creating characters that my intended readers would more likely identify with.

Then came the feedback session of feedback sessions. I have to credit two friends and fellow authors who have been giving me input from the very beginning. However, one of them was especially tired of tweaking characters here and there and finding missing quotation marks. After all, it had been ten years of this nonsense. She finally laid it on the line and gave me the following assignment.

Map out each storyline in your story. Start with the MAIN overall story--start to finish. And then map each substory plot and how it connects to the main story. If it doesn't connect, cut it as it does nothing. 

Write a brief summary of each chapter in the order it appears.

List EVERY character who appears in your story and how each one relates to the overall story including when they’re introduced and when they appear again. If they do NOT appear after they have been introduced in even a SMALL capacity, they are filler and should be cut as they are simply used as a plot device and nothing more. Each character, minor and main, should be tied to the main story in some way. Does not mean they have to dominate, but even minor characters have a role to play that SHOULD have an impact on the protagonist in their journey. Furthermore, each character should have a story arc. They, too should be impacted. If they’re not, then why are they in there?

Are your stakes high enough? Or are you just trying to create some kind of "deep meaning" without an engaging plot or high stakes for the character. If so, story has bigger problems. The main character needs to desire something; the stronger that desire, the more tension the story builds, especially when the character encounters obstacles. Otherwise, it's boring. What happens if the character fails? Every chapter should work toward the overall stakes. Map it out, connect it to the main story. If it’s not making an impact, cut it. 

Examine your protagonists and how they play into the main plot. Are they there just to ferry a story along? Are they actually secondary and another character should be the protagonist? What is their desire or goal? Are they capable of handling a full story? Map how they connect to the main plot and subplots.

List every theme in your story and how they play out. Are you trying to do TOO much? Are you using certain themes and events as plot devices for shock effect? I want you to both think deeply on this because certain themes, handled poorly, can come across as being very insensitive. The themes you sow are important but also remember not to let themes get in the way of the actual plot. Map it all out and how they connect to the main story. If they're not actually there for the main story's purpose, then cut them. You should be able to show me how they impact the story from start to finish.

The villains. Who are they? What purpose do they have? How do they cause problems for the protagonist? If no issues are caused or they just exist but doing nothing to prevent the main story from unfolding, then cut them and find some villains or events that can truly hinder the protagonist.

I balked at first. Actually, I felt overwhelmed. However, the more I read her email, the more I realized she was right. Yes, I’m doing the assignment, and yes, I am again rewriting the novel. Normally, I might toss in the towel on this one, but the problem is, it’s the leadoff batter in a series of five so what happens here impacts everything else, and I don’t want to rewrite five novels.

https://www.paulfleischman.net