Creating Drama
When I write a novel, I usually have only a rough outline of the major events. As I've written before, I let the details come to me as I write. I've learned that works well for me, and it allows the characters to take over sometimes - which I love.
My latest novel, "Rich People's Problems", was bubbling along, as the others have. It started with big drama as the female main character is revealed to the public to be a famous novelist. She'd used a pseudonym for all her writing, and only a select few people knew of her pseudonym. When she becomes famous, she escapes to where she grew up, at first for the comfort of "home". But then she realizes that the only famous person she knows lives there. Together, they help her come to grips with her newfound fame and the press attention that comes with it.
All that was great. I had a basic outline of the sequence of events. I added some drama with her biological father being a jerk, first by having left his pregnant girlfriend to raise their child alone and second by barely trying to be part of his daughter's life and usually just embarrassing her. Her mother turns out to have been gay all along, a fact she didn't really realize or accept in high school. Anyone who reads my books knows that I usually have at least one LGBTQ+ character, in keeping with my attempts to normalize differences.
But as I thought about the book a couple of weeks ago, I realized that there wasn't a dramatic arc to the story. To be sure, it starts with drama. And there is more along the way.
But there wasn't a real climax, when everything came to a head.
I've been wracking my brain about it for the last few weeks. And I finally came up with a climax, one that not only brings all the drama together, but also continues the secondary title "The Story of Raggedy Ann and Andy".
Today's task was to rework the outline and chapters to reflect this new climax. We'll see whether it really hits the mark when I get there in a couple more chapters.
My latest novel, "Rich People's Problems", was bubbling along, as the others have. It started with big drama as the female main character is revealed to the public to be a famous novelist. She'd used a pseudonym for all her writing, and only a select few people knew of her pseudonym. When she becomes famous, she escapes to where she grew up, at first for the comfort of "home". But then she realizes that the only famous person she knows lives there. Together, they help her come to grips with her newfound fame and the press attention that comes with it.
All that was great. I had a basic outline of the sequence of events. I added some drama with her biological father being a jerk, first by having left his pregnant girlfriend to raise their child alone and second by barely trying to be part of his daughter's life and usually just embarrassing her. Her mother turns out to have been gay all along, a fact she didn't really realize or accept in high school. Anyone who reads my books knows that I usually have at least one LGBTQ+ character, in keeping with my attempts to normalize differences.
But as I thought about the book a couple of weeks ago, I realized that there wasn't a dramatic arc to the story. To be sure, it starts with drama. And there is more along the way.
But there wasn't a real climax, when everything came to a head.
I've been wracking my brain about it for the last few weeks. And I finally came up with a climax, one that not only brings all the drama together, but also continues the secondary title "The Story of Raggedy Ann and Andy".
Today's task was to rework the outline and chapters to reflect this new climax. We'll see whether it really hits the mark when I get there in a couple more chapters.
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