Conflict

I've discovered that the part of writing I struggle with the most (setting aside creating characters and the actual world in which I write) is layering conflict in a story. As I write I tend to forget that I need more than one single issue to hold the book together. I get caught up in the main plot and write to move that forward but I forget that in, say, a teen mystery the characters have other things going on. They have school. They have budding romances and unrequited love. They have rivalries and cliques and get pissed off at friends and relatives on a fairly regular basis.

I have a bad habit of letting all those other things fall away and without them, the work falls flat.

On any given day, I have a lot going on in my life. I have problems with work. I have problems with family and friends. I find myself, to paraphrase one of my senior managers, unable to get out of my own way. I get stressed out; I feel an overwhelming urge to curl up in a chair with a book and a hard drink.

And that's all without anyone trying to kill me, which is what my characters have to deal with on a daily basis.

But somehow, when I sit down in front of my computer and begin to type, I develop a one-track mind. Which, for me, is odd. Granted, I get hung up on various topics and I've been accused more than once of talking about work too much. But the way my brain works in general is that it jumps around. I can't just sit down and watch a TV show or movie. I have to read a book or surf the net or something like that. I can go to the movie theater and absolutely love the movie I'm watching but by the halfway point I'm checking my watch and trying to gauge how much longer it's going to last.

I get bored with things. Even when I go on a kick with a new TV show (MacGyver, at the moment), I can't just focus on that. I'll surf the net, read fic, and write all while watching the show. It keeps me engaged.

But when I write, I latch onto the one main plot and let everything else fall away. Yes, that main conflict is the driver of the story but if I want people to identify with my characters and be drawn into the book, it needs to have more.

So, while I can certainly fix this in revision (and I suspect that will be the case), my new writing goal is to consciously focus on all aspects of the story as I write, rather than leaving it to revision to repair. And I'm getting better at it. In my current book, my main character has an ex-husband who still wants to be in her life--and protect her from herself. She also has a boss who she'd like to push out her office window. She has two kids who are still reeling from her divorce. And she has the mystery.

And once a chapter or so I recall some (or, on a really good day) all of these. And I might even have a flash of insight as to how to work in one or more of them.

Have to start somewhere, I suppose.


x-posted to my LJ