To what end?

That is my  reminder on plotlines. My strong suit, if I can claim one, is in the foundation of stories: characters, world building, situations.

My downfall tends to be of two sorts. The first are endings; I have trouble ending a book. Too often I have the core concept, a decent opening, and I’m pounding around on the keyboard…and suddenly I realize I have no idea where the novel is going or what the ending will be. That is what shunted Zerk and Call to Arms to the sidelines after 50k words.

The second problem comes along when I get the opening, foundation, and an ending in mind and I’m happily cranking out words…and then I realize I have and opening and an end, and only a vague concept of how the two are connected. That is how Game stalled.

My problem is that as I write plans and plots change to fit the page, and characters grow; and like every parent, I find that my offspring do not always grow the way I wanted or expected them to grow. For example, in the Phantom Badgers Kroh, Rolf, and Star were supposed to be a trio at odds in order to show the cultural differences the three represented. But as I wrote the three grew together as comrades.

I don’t know if other writers have this problem, but I do. However, projects do not die for me; they go dormant until inspiration hits and then they resume, often more than once. I started Zerk in 2015, stalled, worked on it again in late 2016 and stalled, and then picked it back up in late 2017 and brought it home.

Occasionally I have to cut off a false plot trail and regroup a few pages back, but not often.

Anyway, that is the process I labor with; at times I am amazed I finish anything.