Inside The Writing Life: Wrangling the Roadblocks

Earlier this year, I posted on the exigencies of Characters Behaving Badly (with the culprit, in that case, being Thanir.) On several occasions now, I’ve also talked about the importance of the writing break to assist in wrangling narrative roadblocks, whether small or large—most recently as a coda to my post on liking puzzles, as well as in relation to the authorial (coffee) break.

Ah, those coffee breaks…

And when I interviewed Courtney Schafer on the Supernatural Underground, also earlier this year, I nodded heartfelt concurrence when she mentioned that writing scenes comprising multiple point-of-view characters is always a tough gig.

In writing the conclusion to The Wall Of Night series, there is no shortage of scenes that involve multiple point-of-view characters and/or major secondary characters as well. So an important aspect, even when all the characters are cooperating fully with the writing process, is doing all the relevant characters justice. And not unlike driving a team of horses, it’s vital not to get their storylines entangled. So even at the best of times, authorial concentration is required.

The writing process gets even trickier when the characters, the narrative, or the Muses are not playing ball. As mentioned in the Puzzles post, sometimes the roadblocks are simply a case of the author not seeing the writing forest for the individual trees.

Mindgames & puzzles…

At other times, characters can and do refuse to cooperate, like Thanir earlier this year and the Earl away back when I was first writing The Heir of Night. In a way, Kalan and Myr, when writing Daughter of Blood, also fitted that bill, because although the original story arc always had them falling in love, no matter what I did as author, they simply refused to do so.

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In short, despite best-laid plans, the author was required to adapt to the imperatives of the story and the characters. In all these cases, too, the noncooperation happens for a reason, or sometimes a number of reasons—which eventually become manifest when I really pay attention to the ‘voice’ of the story.

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Some of these reasons include:

Avoiding “by-the-numbers” storytelling or “cardboard cutout” characters. The long-ago problem with the Earl of Night, for example, was that as initially conceived he was a stereotypical tyrannical father figure. The Muses, though, weren’t having a bar of that, and the narrative simply wouldn’t progress until I engaged with Tasarion as a real person.

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Not crossing the same storytelling stream twice. This is a real risk in a big book where there are multiple point-of-view characters, all of whom have been exposed to a variety of physical and magical, personal and political conflicts, throughout the narrative to date. So it can be all-too-easy to write “action hero type A”, or “battle sequence B”, just to move the narrative forward.

Again, though, the Muses won’t stand for that sort of malarkey, and the roadblock is only resolved when I own my mea culpa and find a way to write the conflict that is fresh and also authentic, both to the characters and the storyline.

So with Kalan and Myr, for example, a small part of the roadblock associated with their arc was that the WALL series already had a “starcrossed lovers” storyline, i.e. Audin and Ghiselaine in The Gathering of the Lost. Doing the same thing again didn’t feel right and persisting (because “the plan”) increasingly struck writing resistance.

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Maintaining Authenticity: Another aspect of the roadblock was that Kalan’s relationship with Jarna (again, in Gathering) also had starcrossed elements. In addition, and arguably more importantly, it felt really out-of-character for Kalan to bounce straight from one relationship to another. Constancy and faithkeeping are both really important aspects of “who he is”, so the story has to reflect that, as well as continuing to shape him through ongoing events.

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The final aspect of the Kalan-Myr roadblock, one that required considerable wrangling to resolve, was that the Daughter story is primarily about duty and honor, amid a sequence of life-and-death events that don’t allow leisure for starcrossed love. So despite my original vision for the WALL arc, I was obliged to adjust it to respect both Kalan and Myr’s characters, and to remain true to the story being told.

In all such cases, I can tell you that identifying the problem and finding a solution that works is a really positive feeling, both for its own sake but most importantly because it enables the storytelling to advance.

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