Book Done Yet? Ten Thousand Drafts

I started wading through the old You Again drafts this week. The oldest one is from April of 2002, and I know there were scenes before I wrote that one. The sheer number of files I have for this thing is overwhelming.

See those blue folders in there? They each have another thousand drafts n them, more or less.

So I went through and pulled out all the notes and diagrams and put them in a new Notes folder. Then I put that folder and the two Curio Files in a new master folder; the Curio files are new so no garbage there, and I’ll go through the Notes folder later since probably 90% of that stuff is worthless now. At this point, I’m concentrating on actual story drafts.

For those I need four folders, Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, and Act 4. I’m going to end up with somewhere around sixty to seventy scenes, so sorting them into acts is the most efficient way to see what I’m doing, not to mention keep an eye on my escalation and pacing.

Then to figure out what scene goes in what act, I have to know my turning points, even though it’s too early to really know them for sure. And that means I have to know my major characters, protagonists and antagonists in the main plot and subplot.

So my main protagonist is Zelda. She’s never known who her father was and her mother died when she was in middle school; her mother’s best friend took her in, which was good because that meant she lived with her best friend, Scylla, who became her foster sister, but it was bad because her foster mother had a drinking problem, and Scylla and reality weren’t always close, so Zelda became the One Who Got Things Done. Now she’s in her early thirties and a complete control freak.

So the first turning point, the first scene, has to knock Zelda out of her comfort zone, crack her stable life, and set her on a scramble to put things back in order. She’ll struggle with that throughout the first act until the second turning point, her Wake-Up call when she realizes that things are not what they seemed, her stability was always an illusion, and the world is an entirely different place than she’d thought.

In between that first scene/shaken stability and turning point/wake-up call/shattered stability scene, I have to introduce all the characters, all the plots and subplots, the setting, the mood, the tone, and above all, the conflict. Which means I have to isolate the main antagonist.

So there’s the murderer. That’s always a good antagonist in a mystery. Problem is, I don’t think the murder mystery is the main plot; I think it’s a subplot, although that may be because I find the murder the least interesting thing about this. Hmmm.

Then there’s James, the guy from her past. Problem with that is that I don’t want Moonstruck romance plot here, I want a Charade plot. Which means my love story is a compromise-and-work-together plot, working against the same antagonist, whoever the hell that is. Also, for years, I had James as a lawyer, and then I made him a hostage negotiator, so I have to pick a lane there.

There’s Scylla, but she’s got her own subplot that’s turned by Zelda’s plot, plus her love story subplot. Not the major antagonist, more of a minion in Rose’s conflict with Zelda, but since she’ll stick with Zelda no matter what, she’s not really a threat, more of a burden.

And there’s Rose, the matriarch, Zelda’s godmother, the person she trusts least in the world. I think Rose might be the antagonist except that I don’t see that supporting the entire book. She’s definitely the person who brings Zelda into her conflict, and they struggle all through the story, but I don’t see Rose as the Big Bad Zelda has to fight at the climax.

So okay, start again. Look at the plots and subplots:

Zelda vs. James: Romance plot.

Zelda vs Rose: Control freak plot, the struggle to define Zelda’s future

Zelda vs Scylla: Balance plot, adjusting their relationship. A minor subplot that’s really as aspect of the bigger Zelda vs. Rose struggle.

Zelda vs. the murderer: Mystery plot; echoes control freak plot with the murderer as a doppelganger antagonist.

Zelda vs. Charlie: more of a complication than a subplot

James vs. Rose: Another determining-the-future plot, just not as fraught as Zelda’s since James isn’t as rigid as Zelda, he just calmly retains control of his life and lets everything else wash over him. So the conflict here is more water on rock, Rose trying to wear him down. Definitely a subplot.

James vs. Mike: echoes the Zelda/Scylla plot in power imbalance, really more of a factor of the James vs. Rose plot.

Scylla vs Quentin: subplot that echoes? reverses? the Zelda/James romance? I know this subplot, I’m just not sure how it makes a pattern with Zelda’s plot yet.

Scylla vs. Mike: more of a factor in the Scylla vs Quentin subplot.

My instinct is to make Rose the antagonist. Rose is what Zelda will become if she doesn’t loosen her grip on her life and the lives of those around her. But I don’t see a big cathartic climax in Zelda vs. Rose. The big cathartic climax is Zelda vs. the murderer. But I also don’t see any way to get the murderer into that first scene, even as a mention.

Gotta pick a lane here. Zelda vs. Rose, Zelda vs. the murderer. Make the other a major subplot along with the romance plot.

Then Scylla vs. Quentin . . .

ARGH. Okay, some of those conflicts are complications not major plots; fold them into the big plots:

Main Plot: Zelda vs. Rose which includes Zelda vs. Scylla, James vs. Rose, and James vs. Mike as complications.

Main Plot: Zelda vs. the murderer, which includes the romance plot and Zelda vs. Charlie as complications.

Romance Plot: Zelda vs. James

Subplot: Scylla vs. Quentin, which includes Scylla vs. Mike as a complication.

So all I need to do is pick a lane among those four, and the rest become subplots.

Gotta be the murder plot.

The other plots are too soft to sustain the whole novel, they deal in character not action, end in compromise not catharsis. They’re vital to the story, but they’re not the story engine.

I have no idea how to get that antagonist into the first scene.

Right now the set-up is WAY too long:

Zelda vs. Scylla in the drive to Rosemore (introduces Rose on the page, James and Mike by reference)

Zelda vs. Rose at Rosemore (Zelda and Rose’s back story, Rose’s plan)

James vs. Primmie in his law office. (Francis on the page, Mike by phone call, Ruby and Evan by reference.

Scylla vs. Quentin in the Rosemore kitchen, Plum on the page.

James vs. Mike in the drive to Rosemore, Ruby and Evan on the page, Primmie either by reference or on the page, depending on which draft.

Zelda vs. Quentin: This just introduces Zelda to Quentin, has to do more.

Zelda vs. Scylla, Rosemore kitchen, Quentin on the page

Zelda vs.Rose/Inglethorpes, Rosemore living room

Zelda vs. James, Rosemore hallway

and a ton more because I was just following my nose.

So revised outline of beginning:

1. Zelda vs. Scylla in the drive to Rosemore (introduces Rose on the page, James and Mike by reference) Zelda starts out calm and in control, ends angry. Set up Zelda’s goal, expectation of James as love interest.

James vs. Primmie in his law office. (Francis on the page, Mike by phone call, Ruby and Evan by reference.

2. James vs. Mike in the drive to Rosemore, Ruby and Evan on the page, Primmie either by reference or on the page, depending on which draft. James starts out in control, going to drop everybody off at Rosemore and go home, ends up with his stability shaken, going to stay the night. Set up expectation of Zelda as love interest.

3. Zelda vs. Rose at Rosemore (Zelda and Rose’s back story, Rose’s plan) Zelda starts out furious and defiant, ends even angrier and defeated. Reinforce James as love interest. Zelda is key to Rose’s goal. Get Liam in there, even if he’s just passing through. Maybe Alice and Isolde here, too?

4. Scylla vs. Quentin in the Rosemore kitchen, Plum on the page. Scylla starts out determined, revises plans as she deals with Quentin, ends determined. Flexible in contrast to Zelda in previous scene. Reinforce James as love interest. Zelda is key to Scylla’s goal.

5.Zelda vs. Quentin: This just introduces Zelda to Quentin, has to do more.

6. Zelda vs. Scylla, Rosemore kitchen, Quentin on the page. Zelda recalibrates stability, Scylla stonewalls her.

7. Zelda vs. Rose/Inglethorpes/Alice/Isolde, Rosemore living room. Not sure of Zelda’s arc here; right now it’s just people sniping at each other. All the Inglethorpes on the page.

8. Zelda vs. James, Rosemore hallway. Pay off expectation.

Eight scenes to get Zelda and James together. Romance is definitely a subplot, but it fuels the other plots because so many other people invest in it. Eight scenes is somewhere between ten and fifteen thousand words, and that’s a long time for just beginning set-up before the rest of the first act kicks into gear.

But that does get all the characters in, either present on the page or by reference:

Zelda and James

Scylla and Mike and Quentin

Rose and Lily and Liam

The Inglethorps: Malcolm, Mary, Nora, Primmie, Mike, Ruby and Evan

Alice and Isolde

Well, it’s a place to start. So the Act 1 folder will have folders for those eight scenes, plus a rest-of-the-act folder for any other scenes, trashing any versions of the deleted scenes. Then I can set up scene sequence folders and I’ll have the beginnings of a plot.

One step at a time, sweet Jesus.

The encouraging thing is that the drafts I’m finding are pretty good. Of course I kept drafting the same damn scenes over and over, and the character dynamics were ridiculously complicated, but the basics are solid. So I’m chuffed about that.

However, the same principle applies to cleaning out this stuff that applied to the office: Do not organize what’s there, figure out what I need and get rid of everything else. Which, as always, leads me back to character as embodied in structure

Also chuff-inducing: More and more I’m seeing where the juice is in the story, where it’s fun for me. I love the ghost Zelda meets, but I had their first meet at the middle turning point. Why wait that long? I moved that whole bit to the first turning point, and now that’s the place where Zelda realizes that no matter how organized she is, things are getting weirder than she can control (that the Wake-Up Call turning point for me). She’s used to be the sane one–her foster sister is the drama queen–but after that she is the only one who can talk to the ghost, so everybody else at the house except for Isolde and Alice thinks she’s suffered a traumatic injury and is hallucinating. That’s the point where her foster sister, Scylla, steps up to the reality plate (Wake-Up Call for the Scylla subplot), or as close as she can get, within spitting distance anyway, and that leads to this scene where Zelda’s trying to cope with this incredibly selfish family (not hers, the hero’s) and deal with the ghost, too, who keeps forgetting what year it was because for him, a minute ago it was 1970. Okay, THAT’s fun to write.

So I am cautiously optimistic about this. What will Scylla (foster sister) living her life as if it’s a constantly changing movie and Rose (godmother) plotting to use Zelda for her own ends and James (crush from seventeen years ago) trying to roll back time so they can pick up where they off, and the ghost actually rolling back time because he can’t figure out why the hell it’s snowing in August . . . . I could have a really good time with this book.

I just need to get my head wrapped around it. It’s clearly about time, and control, about giving up control for a control freak, but that’s not clear enough.

Getting there, though.

Now to go through those files . . . .

AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH.

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