I'd just like to start by saying thank you for joining me through my writing journey. As you know, I'm on the millionth draft of this novel. It has been a roller coaster, swooping from the highs of 'It's finished!' down to the lows of 'I scrapped the lot and started again.'
I genuinely believe there is a lot of good story in this book. What I'm not doing well is the world building in the middle of the book, I think.
Let's break it down and unpick it properly.
Our main characters are Tim an Lexi. Let me see if I can Google search some pics to give you a rough idea of what this pair may look like. (Illustrations pending)
This isn't quite how I picture them but as I can't draw, this is the best I could find on the internet. Click
here if you'd like to make your own character. It's free! This gives you a visual idea about who my main characters are, what about who they are on the inside?
Core Wants
Lexi wants nothing more than to escape the life she has at the moment.
Tim wants nothing more than to continue the life he has at the moment, with little disruption as possible.
Core Personality
Lexi is outgoing, determined and fearless. She will do anything to achieve her wants, go anywhere, stand up to anyone. And she does.
Tim is naturally curious, open minded and thoughtful but these traits are often over ridden by his learnt behaviour: don't get in trouble!
The Conflict
Conflict between Lexi and Tim occurs when Lexi tries to push Tim out his comfort zone. She can be quite thoughtless, and speaks without thinking. Tim, a thoughtful person who always thinks before he speaks or acts, thinks this makes Lexi careless and selfish. This is where conflict occurs between these two characters.
So, why are they friends?
On a subconscious level, Tim loves that Lexi pushes him to be more adventurous. In turn, Lexi likes that Tim is making her more thoughtful. This is their character arc and they both come to their arcs because of each other.
The Mis-Belief
Your main character should start the story with a misbelief that is part of their character arc. See
Story Genius by Lisa Cron. Their misbelief is rooted deep within their psyche from past experiences.
Tim's misbelief is that the town he lives in, Rosewell, is completely ordinary. He also believes that if he just behaves well enough, everything will be ok.
I find Lexi's misbelief more difficult to define. Her entire life has been turned upside down. She deliberately acts out and behaves in ways that no one approves of. I think Lexi's misbelief is that no one cares about her so she may as well do what she likes. This is reinforced by some of the minor characters, but disproved by others. Lexi bounces around with her misbelief.
My Message
My message is about motivating people to act in ways they don't feel capable, to move outside their comfort zones. I don't feel capable of writing a novel, sometimes. But, I'm trying to say that you don't have to be magical or have a destiny in order to do something amazing.
I'm trying to show this in making it appear Lexi is the all amazing person in the story, but actually it's Tim who does the most amazing things. This is something that Lexi will point out to him at the end of the book, when Tim has reached his character arc. Also, in being able to explain this to Tim, Lexi will have reached her character arc.
Unpicking the Middle
I have often said that the middle of my novel is the most difficult for me to unpick. I think that's because I know what my characters are going to do, but I don't know why. Or also when. Lexi does thoughtless things when she should be more thoughtful. Tim is being fearful when, along his arc, he should be more brave.
This is a really quick sketch of what I'm thinking for their story arc, but you can see here that they act differently at different parts of their arc.
Maybe, that's what I've been missing, that character development that's in an arc rather than a spaghetti mess like it has been. The events in the story happen because of what the characters do but why are they doing these actions? I've really got to go back to the drawing board and think about what I want to happen in which part of the character arc. This would also dictate how it's going to happen.
The black line on this sketch could be what happens in the story which isn't caused by the characters but is something they can react to, which says what happens next. It's a really loose over view that could be padded out on scene cards.
More Unpicking
I've always known what happens in the beginning because it's so Lexi character led. I've always known what happens at the end of my story because it's Tim and Lexi led. It's the middle, the world building, the learning, the growing, the events that shape the characters of my characters that I found tricky.
At it's heart, this is an adventure novel. The ending is the culmination of the children's skills and experiences they've had during the book. But, they still need to have adventures as this story goes along. Mini-adventures. If they were exploring a jungle, or a castle, there would be foot falls, cliff hangers, hidden treasure. Just because they're exploring an alien world, doesn't mean these elements can't be reflected somewhere in the story.
I think I need to have a sketching session and then come back to it. I need to have a think.
Thank You So Much for Reading
This has been really useful! Thank you. Unpicking where I'm going wrong like this has really helped me with the middle of my novel.
