by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Every once in a while when it comes to these five novels, I sheepishly realize that something I’ve taken for granted for a very long time — years even — just isn’t working and I have to start from scratch.
Usually the reason why I feel so sheepish about this situation is, well, I don’t have a girlfriend or a wife who might have noticed the problem from the start. But, alas, I’m doing all of this in a complete vacuum, so lulz. Such a creative reset has just happened AGAIN, this time with the first novel in the series.
And it’s a pretty big reset.
It’s so big, in fact, that I may have to throw out a pretty well established and otherwise stable third act. Totally start from scratch. Reimagine the whole thing. But the rest of the novel now has a point. I know what the stakes are and instead of just being a series of events that are mildly interesting, there is some sense of what will happen if the protagonist doesn’t act.
I saw some of Liquorice Pizza recently — I walked out because I didn’t like the vibe, not because it isn’t a great, great movie. Anyway, at least I learned something from what I saw of the movie — you need strong characters if you’re going to have an interesting story. So, that is one of the reasons that prompted this reset of the first novel.
I now have definite stakes and I’m going to come at this creative reset from a character angle. I’m going to figure out my new protagonist first before I do anything else. I may, even, re-read a great how-to book I have about character. I read it every once in a while and I think I need to read it again to really understand how to establish the character from a position of strength.
