a light bulb moment

I was sitting here, staring at the screen and the rough version of the next unedited chapter in my book. It’s a turning point space in the book. My main character should be having some kind of clarity about what’s next. It’s not that she’s got the whole puzzle solved, but she needs to open the next clue.

I love NaNoWriMo, but I have to admit, it ruins me for a good few months of writing/editing. It’s how I felt about having another baby when my own were just a couple months old. It was too soon to look appealing.

The cursor was blinking out its code, “let’s get to work, blink, blink, what do you want to say, blink, blink.” The toll of morning parenting had already chipped away at my energy and my sinking eyelids pushed my eyeballs down. There under my nose was the latest issue of Writer’s Digest.

Hmm… I thought. A legitimate distraction, right? The cover lured me in with “5 Essentials for an Unforgettable Plot.” I could do with an unforgettable plot right about now, so I opened it up.

The article is called, “Story Trumps Structure” by Steven James. (It’s in the Feb 2011 issue of Writer’s Digest Magazine.) Admittedly, my head bobbed its longing for sleep a few times (exhaustion’s, not the article’s fault) before I ran across this sentence , “The story might begin while your protagonist is depressed, hopeless, grieving or trapped in a sinking submarine.” Wow. I perked up. Save for the sinking submarine, which could be a metaphorical feeling for my protagonist, Steven James was dead on. I’m listening, Steven. Go on.

“Such circumstances could be what’s typical for your character at the moment. When that happens, it’s usually another crisis (whether internal or external) that will serve to kick-start the story.”

Insert Oprah-like AHA!

I don’t know if I told you this already or not, but one of the criticisms I got on my first chapter (post Hook Me contest) was that my protagonist didn’t seem to have a goal. What was it exactly she wanted? In all honesty, I wasn’t sure.

But now, after reading this article, I think- OH! Of course, what she really wants is…. Now, how will she get it and will it happen in the way or shape she thinks it will?

After a year of working on this, and a few months of really trying to answer that question, I finally get it. I know what my protagonist is after.

And…thanks to the description of “Ingredient #4: Discovery”, I also know it can’t happen the convenient (read: lazy) way I thought it would, i.e. via the “Wise Answer-Giver”. I shuddered when he described it that way. I mean how cliché Lynn. Get creative, will ya?

So, armed again, with more great insight from a writer who’s been there (thank you Steven James), I’m ready to get back to my story.

Just in time, too, I ran out of edited chapters to hand to my critique group last week.

Praying you the Aha’s you require to finish your work, dear writing readers. Now, back to my book!

I’ll link up the article as soon as it’s posted online. I doesn’t seem to be up yet.