Friday, June 19, 2009

Layering

While I was sitting in rush hour traffic, which I thankfully rarely have to sit in, a thought occurred to me about my wip. There has been something not clicking in the development of my hero. Something that seems incomplete. Then it hit me like ice cream on a cold slab of marble, my hero and heroine are not just meeting. They have a past!

My brain immediately slammed to a halt, stripped a few gears popping into reverse and said, "Nope, no way. That means rethinking everything and we're not going to do that." The other side of my brain, the side routing for the change declared, "Sure we can! Not THAT much is written and adjusting the story to make it BETTER is never a bad idea."

The anti-change side is pretty stubborn, but I have a feeling I can get the two to compromise. Which sounds completely bizarre and troublesome because I shouldn't have two sides of my own mind arguing with each other. Who's driving the car while righty and lefty are going at it? Apparently they can each drive with one hand on the wheel because I made it home safely.

I'm sure that this delimma is not new to me. So I'm curious, how often, once you've done the ground work if you're a plotter or once you've got words on the page if you're a pantser, have you had a major revelation that changes the entire story enough that it's an overhaul? And how often have you ground your teeth about the idea? :o)

April