Stuck in a Character-Story Mire

When the story grows larger than you expected, more complex and with more characters, what do you do?

Option 1: Abandon the story, come back later, the little story elves will continue their sweat labor and fix it for you. (They’re not union, it’s ok.)
Option 2: Ignore the problem, it is clearly brilliant and I am looking at it on an “off” day.
Option 3: Cry, bitch and moan and then push on anyway, take longer than I had wanted, but make it right.

New insight tells me the little story elves don’t exist, so I guess Option 3 it is.



This was a huge sticking point for me on my re-read of Felling Abberfaun last year on what was to be a “brief” re-read. One that was just to make sure I knew what I was talking about, before I began the attempt to do a new draft. For a vast part of the re-read, I was ecstatic: Things made sense, the plot moved forward, characters were engaging and interesting, but then, there was that hanging point...

With my limited writing time (cry, bitch and moan time) I usually find myself unable to plan things out. I get the time to write the next scene or complete a brief thought and that’s about it. I did find a solution, but it was not easy. I have dozens (perhaps far more) of notes from here to the moons of Jupiter. Figuring out how to fix a quagmire when you (and your notes) are scattered can be a little challenging.

But, then, I am still learning my process and I’m getting there one heavy step at a time.