Inside The Writing life: Those Moments of “Grr-Argh”
In writing a multi-book story, there are always moments of what I, borrowing from the Buffy ‘verse, describe as moments of “grr-argh”—which in Buffy is what happens when the unwary encounter a vampire. Well, the vampire goes “grr-argh” (or some variant thereof) and the unwary runs away screaming (if they’re lucky…)
In less elevated environs, such as those surrounding the writing of books, they could also be called moments of hair-tearing, or alternatively, head-desking.
Continuity errors are a reliable source of such moments, i.e. when the author realises they can’t do x-y-z here, as long planned, because way back whenever, the character or characters did a-b-c under the same or near-similar circumstances. So to do x-y-z now would be inconsistent: shock, horror. (Actually, I do in fact, regard continuity errors with ‘fear and loathing.’ Just saying.)
Another moment-of-headdesk relatively recently was discovering that a minor but fun anecdote/fact I have consistently edited out of the previous three manuscripts because it wasn’t vital to their storylines (and reducing overall word count always a pressing consideration), would have made a really great set-up for something not quite so minor in WALL #4… Headdesk indeed!
This should not, by the way, be confused with that far more major dilemma “writing oneself into a corner.” It just means the author (yep, that’s right: me!) has to work a little harder in this case, to build the setup within this book. Still, definitely a tad frustrating, although probably unsurprising given it is a multi-book story.
Heigh ho… Or to put it another way, just another regular day in the life literaire. 😀
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Oh no! Something great will appear in your brain, just like all those other times you have to think your way out of trouble. We are with you in spirit.
Thanks, Jacqui: appreciated. 🙂 The main precursor event is present in earlier books, so have linked directly to that and so far is reading ok: fingers crossed. And otherwise: onward. 🙂