Just because you can…

Guest Blogger: Marie Lamba

Fiction writers can create a story out of anything, and every character they put down on paper can have their own conflict, their own storyline. This is both a blessing and a curse.

When writing my new paranormal novel DRAWN, I knew I was creating what, for me, was a “big book.” Up to that point I’d been writing novels that took place within a tight one month timeframe. My plots revolved around my town of Doylestown, PA, and were populated by people very familiar to me. “Write what you know,” they say, and I knew the worlds of my first two young adult novels WHAT I MEANT… and OVER MY HEAD very well. But DRAWNwas a different sort of story.

Time is slippery in this time-travel book, involving a month-long timeframe in the present, but also an eight-month long timeframe in the past. The setting is present day AND 1460 England. I’m a bit familiar with modern England, having lived there for a semester and visited numerous times, but the past? Not so much. Intensive research was required. My characters in this new novel range from Italian-Americans, to British citizens, medieval lords and courtiers and servants. Add into this mix a plot line where the past and the future continues to be altered as our heroine travels back and forth in time and, well, you have a big book indeed.

And I struggled a bit to make sure it didn’t turn into one big mess. Which gets us to the heart of this post: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. I can’t tell you how many characters I spun out into entire storylines with their own scenes and character arcs…and some of these characters don’t even appear in the book anymore. You might think the solution is an outline, but even when using an outline it can be hard to tell just how far to go with a character’s story or to know which scenes might be important.

Sometimes the only solution is to write it through and then cut cut cut! Sure, you are doing a ton of character research by writing those extra scenes. But when the character ends up being barely a minor one, it becomes a case of TMI. You don’t need all, or sometimes any of that stuff. And by heading off here and there on wild plot chases, you are wasting time, wasting your energy, and muddying your own clear view of things.

In DRAWN, I’d created this character Guncha, who quickly became one of Michelle’s friends after Michelle moved to England. Guncha was gossipy and romantic-minded, so she was the perfect person to give Michelle the scoop on things, and to nudge her in matters of romance when Michelle finds herself stalked by an unknown guy who also, by the way, mysteriously appears in Michelle’s sketches. But when it came to Guncha, I didn’t stop there. Before I knew it, Michelle was visiting Guncha’s house, sleeping over, meeting her family, learning of Guncha’s conflicts with her traditional family. And Guncha was planning an escape with a secret and unsuitable boyfriend, etc. etc. etc. Nearly one hundred pages later, I realized that my story had naturally strayed far from its central focus: Michelle and her encounters with Christopher Newman, the hot medieval ghost with a sketchy past.

So, refocus and cut cut cut! In the final book we only see Guncha at school and at a carnival. There is no secret boyfriend. No family to speak of. And Michelle wishes she felt closer to her, but realizes that she just can’t share her own secrets with Guncha. How would Guncha ever understand that Michelle’s budding new relationship just might be with a ghost? As Guncha implores Michelle to tell, but secrets continue to build, the reader is in on the gossip instead of Guncha, which is fun. So in this case, I would have saved a ton of time if I could have decided up front not only that Guncha was going to be a minor character, but also what her true function in the plot would be. This is a biggie, because if I knew this I could have smacked my own hand every time I deviated from this mission.

Sounds good, right? But what if your extra character’s story parallels and weaves into the main plot, adding intrigue and mystery? Why wouldn’t you stray into that storyline?  DRAWN involves an ancient murder, and a chilling curse that still lingers in the town’s castle. In the book, the Wallingford Papers (based on the real Paston Letters…look ‘em up if you’re curious) are a series of preserved family letters dating back to the 1400s. They detail the history of the murder, and the heroism of the Wallingford ancestors. But are all the letters actually in the public record? And are they to be believed? This plot is essential to the book, involving the fate of the ghost and pretty much everyone in the story.

Okay, so doesn’t it seem obvious that a scholar could be at the heart of rooting out this mystery? Since the Wallingford family reputation (and much of their success) hinges on their heroic background, wouldn’t you expect that family to do anything to keep their family name clean? So, is it that crazy that I created a scholar who in the ‘50s uncovered their secrets and was about to go public with it, before an untimely death? Flash forward to the present, and I also created Mr. Llywelyn, a history teacher at Wallingford Academy (Michelle’s new school) who was related to this very scholar and who is also fighting to uncover the truth of the murder, the papers and the death of the scholar, and…

Cut cut CUT!!! Jeesh. Do you see how the fiction writer’s mind can spin and weave and deviate from the main story path, even while she is following that very same path? Yikes, it’s like entrapment I tell you. In the end I had to give a long hard look at the story elements that were most essential. Yes, I wanted a scholar who was silenced, but I decided that this scholar would have absolutely nothing to do with the history teacher. The scholar now has merely a mention, just enough to add to the danger and the gravity of the treacherous ancient secrets being kept. As for Mr. Llywelyn? Well, he’s Michelle’s history teacher, instructing the class about the very era Christopher the ghost inhabits. The teacher’s role is now limited to occasionally adding in a fact about the Wallingford Papers, about the dangers of living at that time, etc., thereby ramping up the tension for Michelle when she realizes what these facts mean to a ghost she’s starting to have spooky good feelings for. I had to focus on Michelle as the hero, as the person who solves the mystery and makes things happens. No way should this be relegated to another character and, since this is a YA title, especially not to an adult.

So again, a supposed major-player was reduced to a few lines. Lines that were necessary and served the plot. And beyond that? Well, this just wasn’t his story.

Sometimes writing a book is a process, sometimes it’s an ordeal, but it’s only successful if we give our draft a hard look and decide if scenes are moving us forward, and if our deviations are truly creating the book we’d set out to write.

As I get further along in my writing career, I’m training myself to create a clearer storyline and to force myself to stick to that path. If the story is complex enough, like DRAWN is, there is no need to deviate and take elaborate side trips into other character paths. It’s enough, while plotting, to stick to the main issues and simply ask myself: And then what? And then? And then?

The answers, surprisingly, equal a rich and complex novel. For me, the agony of cutting and revising and focusing was a bit messy, but truly worth the effort. As the reviewer at the STORIES. READ ‘EM. WRITE ‘EM site recently said about DRAWN: The characters are well drawn (sorry, I couldn’t resist) and the plot is tight. The pacing is terrific, and kept me turning the page.

Man, am I glad she never saw all those manuscript pages I turned into recycling!

Marie Lamba is author of acclaimed young adult novels including WHAT I MEANT… (Random House), OVER MY HEAD, and DRAWN. When she isn’t writing and then cutting scenes from her novels, she’s working as an Associate Literary Agent at The Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency in NYC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About DRAWN:

Teen artist Michelle De Freccio moves to England in search of a normal life…instead she finds a hot medieval ghost with a sketchy past.

It all begins when a strange guy appears in Michelle’s drawings. When she actually meets him at the town’s castle, she’s unmistakably drawn to him. But something is definitely not right. For starters, he wears medieval garb, talks of ancient murders and tends to disappear each time they kiss.

Could he possibly be a ghost? Could Michelle be losing her mind? Or has she simply uncovered a love so timeless it’s spanned the centuries…

Praise for DRAWN:

“…a wonderfully spooky tale of romance and discovery. It’s a magical exploration of the unconquerable power of love.  Highly recommended!” —Jonathan Maberry, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of ROT & RUIN and DUST & DECAY

“In DRAWN, Marie Lamba deftly entwines romance and mystery, past and present, into a page-turning adventure. Buy it today and I promise you’ll be finished reading far too quickly!” —Joy Nash, USA TODAY bestselling paranormal romance author of The Immortals series, THE GRAIL KING and THE UNFORGIVEN

 

11 Comments:

  1. Marie, great post! Would love to see some of those cut scenes and characters….and what a complex story you wove, you really set yourself a challenge and delivered. As I write a new book I will keep this in mind “Just because I CAN doesnt mean I should!”
    Thanks for the tip..

  2. Hi Donna!

    Thanks. I’m sure I have piles of old scenes somewhere…er, pretty sure. When I get a moment of “free time” (ha!) that will be a great project…to cull those scenes and pop them online somehow.

    Glad you found this post helpful 🙂

    Marie

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  4. Marie, I loved hearing about your cutting floor pile…and glad to know it even happens to the best writers! What hope for the rest of us!

    It sounds like those cut scenes served the same purpose as backstory. When I first started writing that’s all I could write, and I remember my teacher saying, “Don’t worry one day you’ll find the true story.” As you can attribute, one day the true story does shine through!

    I do hope you put those cut scenes online. What a fun idea…

    • Hi Stephanie,

      I guess everything serves a function, right? I do put the synopsis of my novel, which I write to resemble back of the book jacket copy, on my wall near my computer. I look at it often to remind myself that, yeah, THAT’S the book I’m writing. But still, it’s easy to lose focus and stray.

      Thanks for checking in!
      Marie

  5. For me cutting just hasn’t been an option. Since I write with the seat of my pants as a guide, the story flows from my conscious perspective. To cut something out would seem counterintuitive. But that is me. And my novels, so far, take place over a short time and one place. When I edit, I seem to always be adding not subtracting as I have a tendency to embellish. I say take those cuttings off the floor and make another novel out of them. They are your words. They are part of you. Great success and love your blog.

    • Hi Reggie!

      Wow, sounds like you really write tight. You must have a very focused vision, even while you “pants” it. It just goes to show how very many different approaches there are to writing a novel.

      And it really sounds like I’d better clean up the floor of my studio. 😉 Seriously, though, it would be fun to put together my “out-takes.” Sort of a blooper feature?

      Marie

  6. great post, Marie, thanks Janice for sharing her with us!

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