The plot unravels

You know, you put a plot together, and then you have an idea for a twist, and then another idea for a twist, and all of these beautiful dramatic scenes you want to fit in, and you mould it and shape it and it almost fits together, except for this one thread. So you pick at the thread a bit, and play with the warp and the weft, and all of a sudden the whole weave unravels in your hands, and you’re left tied up in a cat’s cradle of your own making.

I tried to discuss The Plot with J. on Saturday night. He told me it seemed like I didn’t have it all worked out, and the damned thing proceeded to collapse in front of me like a house of cards.

Only two weeks ago I was complaining to K. about it; about the huge back-story, about how I couldn’t work it all in by “showing not telling,” about how dull I found it to write perfectly clean and neutral sentences, so I had to change from third person to first person to make it work.

The problem is that my main character was a dreamy-wise-calm thing (another Princess Grace), and of course I can’t write like that from the first person, so I had to change her whole personality, which took me days of brainwork. Except I still wanted to write from the third person as well, as she’s supposed to be a beautiful woman and I wanted to describe her red flowing curls and the way her body moves.

I was ten thousand words into the book when it just went jigsaw on me again, the whole picture breaking up into postmodern fragments, all because of a minor event in the plot, which should not have been a minor event, which would push the character involved in that event into a leading role in the story when I didn’t want him to. Can a book handle four main characters? I don’t know. I don’t have anything else to say about this character in this plot, he needs a whole book of his own to be understood.

I’m now at ground zero – researching plot structures and trying to choose a model: perhaps “Circe,” or maybe “Tristan,” or should it be “Romeo and Juliet”? It all hinges on the annoyance of this intrusive minor character and what I should do with him.