Just a Little Squirrelly
It’s been a crazy time at the Town’s End. Both kiddos ended up with fevers, my husband has been sick, and I had a medical detour that resulted in me bawling at the table while shoveling cheesecake and gummy bears into my mouth. Don’t worry, I’m fine. I just love cheesecake. And gummy bears.
Health stuff aside, NaNoWriMo hasn’t been going great. I’m at 2K right now, and I’m supposed to be up over 13. What’s the problem? Glad you asked.
I’ve been trying to play catch-up with my character LaTonya. I know her pretty well. She’s a feminist who wants nothing more than to destroy the monster that killed her guardians. Her goal is to protect Naomi, the last guardian and likely next target of the monster, while dealing with a misogynistic foreigner who seems to be hunting the same creature. The problem is, there isn’t much for her to do. She is pretty much stalking Naomi and butting heads with this overly cheerful guy who has a horse following him everywhere. She gets to deal with broken guardians, missing leaders, attacking monsters that eat her power, and transporting people where they need to go, but writing her point of view… well, she’s really nothing more than a powerful babysitter.
That’s pretty darn boring.
She’s relevant because she’s part of the team that takes out the monsters in the end. Her sword becomes the instrument of her revenge and a cage for an immortal monster that would otherwise continue to be a threat. She saves the hero and learns how to cope and continue on without her life-long companions. But what the heck is she supposed to do until then? While the other characters are trying to cure people, keep the world from imploding, fix the imbalance of power, cope with becoming a monster, and figure out new powers while accidentally ripping apart deities, she’s just kind of hanging out.
I don’t know if I can handle anymore subplots. I’ve got too many as it is. But I need something for her to do. She’s supposed to be the character who introduces the reader to the new races invading their land. That’s great, except I don’t have a clear path ahead of me. So we’ll see if I’m tossing out another 50K after November is over because I pantsed a bunch of words that just won’t work in the long run.
I know I missed IWSG last week. I was under anesthesia, and I didn’t think I’d be coherent enough to visit blogs. Sorry. But if you didn’t see last Friday’s post, be sure to check out Aldrea Alien’s rerelease of Dark One’s Mistress. It’s worth the read.
Have you ever had a character who seems to do nothing? How did you get past it? Are you doing NaNoWriMo?
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