A Plantser’s Life: Falling in Love With Usurped Plots

I’ve touched on this a little in my previous two posts, but I believe this topic deserves an entire post all by itself. There are times when I am the best procrastinator on the planet. Sometimes this is done on purpose, like when I have to do housework and am not feeling love for what a friend of mine calls “vagina work,” other times it’s when my story is having issues, and I need to take a step back before I write in several character deaths. This post is not about male chauvinism, and poor word choices, however, this is about writing and what happens when an author whether intentionally or not, uses various social media as a hiding spot to avoid doing what they claim to love.

Hidden amongst various social media writing communities and on a website where people ask questions hoping for answers (cough Quora cough). A few days ago a fellow scribe asked a question that went something along the lines of “is it normal for the plot to change from what I started with?” I don’t believe that’s an exact quote, but it’s close enough for this exercise. I wrote an answer explaining how I write and my experiences with a plot that goes off script, or as I like to call it: when characters go off the rails. This isn’t my first experience with this type of question and the responses of fellow members of the writing community. I can tell you that the answers come from two primary schools of thought.

School one: It’s your plot, you characters shouldn’t take it over. You control that bad boy, you own it, make it your bitch. Okay, I’m exaggerating, but that’s what I’ve seen several traditionally, and self-published authors tell people. I want to agree with this thought, but for some reason, I wholeheartedly disagree with this approach.

School two: Go with it. Characters are people too. We don’t have the right to suppress their voices. It’s a little too kumbaya and touchy feely for me. So I’ve got a third thought process that I’d like to share with you.

My school: When characters refuse to cooperate or when your plot suddenly changes from what you’ve carefully crafted there’s probably a reason. Embrace it and see what you’re trying to show you.

I know this will not be a popular idea. In fact, some authors will tell you it is completely unacceptable to believe this way. They think if you’ve fully developed your plot and your characters it should be written as established. There will be issues, of this there is no doubt. Sometimes it’s challenging to decide on which POV to use, showing vs. telling will be problematic (and a royal pain in the butt), and sometimes words are hard.

While the logical side of my brain agrees with most of this, I disagree with the belief that a plot is carved in stone. Sometimes we authors are too close to our own work. (Right now I have a mental image of someone facepalming themselves saying “duh.” Too obvious, huh?) This is a valid point. We spend hundreds, even thousands, of hours researching and designing a plot, the world, and characters for our readers’ enjoyment. Our characters are flawed because readers are flawed, and it is through these flaws that readers form emotional connections to them and the stories they tell.

I wrote the first novel in my series faithful to the outline I’d created. Most changes were exclusive to the revision process. The story showed itself fully to me before writing, and there were no major surprises to me as the author. A little less than three months later book two was an entirely different experience for me. My basic plot stays close to the original, but about a third of the way through my two main characters go completely off script. In fact, they did something I didn’t plan until the next book. I wanted to drag out their developing relationship, add some tension, some potentially life-threatening drama (it’s always potentially fatal when dragons are involved, just sayin’), and make them work for their happy ending. I wanted to show my characters’ flaws and how said imperfections impede healthy relationship building (not that I have any experience with that mind you. I’m not nearly fifty and single or anything close to it…yes, I’m lying). My characters seemed to have a different thought process. They didn’t want to wait, they wanted to ignore my plans and go their own way. They were such selfish little beasts. Gone was my plan to focus more on my female main character’s development and acceptance of problems from her past. Instead, I have a relationship to contend with. I was having none of this. It’s my world, and I will control it when I want to damn it.

I immediately deleted everything about the relationship from my manuscript and brought my focus back where it belonged…on my outline. Okay, deleted may be a bit of an exaggeration. I write in Scrivener. Therefore I remove nothing. I just add another text document and write in it instead. Writing may also be a bit of an overstatement as well. Tried to write is a little more accurate, but the truth is I spent a lot of time staring at the white screen on my computer. Remember, words are hard. Right about now you’re thinking, she had a case of writer’s block. Not true. I knew the story as well as I know my name, I wanted to write it, but the words wouldn’t come out. There was a faulty circuit in my brain that kept playing a mental loop of the one relationship scene I’d written over and over and over.

I know what I’ve described is nearly a textbook example of writer’s block, but it didn’t feel that way to me. When I’m blocked I can’t write anything, I have no stories to tell. This time I had a story, but the words wouldn’t come. I blame my main character, the snarky bitch. She stole my words and wouldn’t let me have them back again until I considered what she was trying to show me. It wasn’t just writing she messed with. I couldn’t read anyone else’s work without thinking about my story. I even dreamt about the stupid characters in my story. The irony of dreaming about my characters was not lost on me. The next morning I went to my computer, opened my story, and read everything I’d written so far. It. Was. Awesome. No, I’m not conceited. The scenes in question were some of the best I’d ever written. That doesn’t mean they’re perfect, or even good, they’re just good for me. Remember, I’m not Laurell K Hamilton, Neil Gaiman, or Jim Butcher, not even close. What I wrote was golden (snort). It worked so well that I had to give it serious consideration. I took my storyboards for both this book and the next, looked at my outline, cut a few scenes, added some new twists, and within a few hours, I was writing again. Hallelujah!

Because of this, I learned something that I’m going to share with all of you. My characters aren’t real, but I am (shocking, right?). If you find your characters making changes to your plot, or if your words just won’t flow you’re probably trying to tell yourself something. Don’t consider my argument valid? Tell me, how this works you. My characters and my stories come from within my mind. If they aren’t working, if characters go off script, etc. it’s reasonable to assume my subconscious is trying to tell me something and using the only tools it can to break into my conscious life. When I say we need to embrace what our characters are showing us, what I’m saying is when need to embrace the changes we’re showing ourselves. Revisions can fix the big issues, but if we’re too rigid in our adherence to a preconceived notion (or plot), we’re going to miss the magic. Magic is what makes writing an amazing experience. Enjoy the usurped plot, the intractable character, embrace the magic.

Until next time,

V. L. Cooke

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