Much Ado About Writer Conundrums

Another chapter is finished! That makes four, for those counting. I’ve planned to hit twenty on this book. Sixteen left. So far, I’ve done the prologue, chapters 1 and 2, and a middle chapter I’m calling chapter 11. It’s exciting to write new material, to say the least.

Each chapter has featured a different point of view so far, but I don’t think I’m being too ambitious doing this with my second novel. I hope. It’s early goings, so it remains to be seen if I can tie them all together organically and make their chapters feel distinct. The plot is still the same base concept I’ve had since finishing The Shadow Over Lone Oak but it may need tweaking to hit the beats I need.

One of the problems with writing a book – and especially a sequel – is not falling into a repetitive loop. You don’t want to bore your readers by recycling elements or phrases you’ve used in the past. At the same time, certain information and exposition has to be doled out so that the reader can begin to formulate where, when, how, and why events are taking place in the narrative. The difficulty is balancing show vs. tell and all that entails.

For example, let’s say you have a scene wherein a character must converse with someone not occupying the same space as them. How do you accomplish this? If it’s a telephone call, you usually just write dialogue and leave what the other person’s doing to the imagination. But what if they’re communicating via an intercom? In this instance, they’re both in the same building but still separated by geography. Is dialogue sufficient to tell the story?

Perhaps you decide to swap between points of view. You follow one character per line of dialogue, switching perspectives to give the reader a better picture. If not executed well, this confuses the reader. Okay, how about splitting the conversation? One page is Character A’s POV until a certain line. At that point, you scene change and get the rest of the conversation from Character B. Is this the better option?

Writing is as much problem-solving as it is putting pen to paper (finger to keyboard). You have to know when and where to put Character A into Plot Point B so that he can intersect with Twist C. It’s like a puzzle that only the author can both create and solve. This, I think, causes me (and others) to stumble most often when writing our work. If you can’t figure out where to set a scene, at what time, with the correct amount of action vs. dialogue, then you’re stuck. You have writer’s block. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, etc.

That’s before diving into description vs. imagination. How much of an environment should you leave to the reader’s whimsy? You want them to understand what is going on, but you don’t want to overload them with imagery to the point that the story is lost beneath purple prose.

Funnily enough, I have the opposite problem most writers have on this issue. Where others are flowery and need to condense their work, I struggle to get the image in my head to accurately translate to the page. I can visualize a scene, the characters, and what they say, but I’m often at a loss as to how to get that message across to the reader. My first drafts of a sentence or paragraph tend to be dull and stilted. It’s only after I’ve read and reread and consulted a thesaurus and worked out tiny knots that I can then come back and beam the scene in my head onto the white space of the page.

So what advice can I give other writers on this issue? No singular solution is for everyone, but for me the best thing to keep in mind is that no one sees the first draft but you. Whatever mistakes you’ve made, whatever flaccid event you’ve written, it can always be corrected. You are the author. You have all the authority and the power to enrich your language and deliver the manuscript necessary to achieve your vision of the story in your head. Never forget that you are the one in charge of writing your stories.

You can rebuild your prose. You have the technology.

Have a great day! God bless.