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a little cooperation here please?
For the last, my God, ten years now, I've been working on and off at a series of mystery novels. The first three are complete, and one day I will find the nerve to try really seriously to get them to a publisher. The fourth has now been in progress for something like four years. I know roughly what's supposed to happen in it, and in the fifth, which will be the last; I just can't make it happen, or at least not on a less than glacial schedule. (A day job which is always time-consuming and often emotionally exhausting doesn't help speed the process along, either.)
Part of the trouble is that the fourth book demands a somewhat different structure from the first three; rather than just telling a story from start to finish with two or three closely related viewpoints, it also involves a lot of real-world history, presented mostly through interludes from people who otherwise don't appear directly, and a lot of references to other books. Also I am usually happy-ending girl, both in what I write and what I like to read, and the fourth book only has a happy ending to the extent that the main character doesn't actually die.
I'm struggling at the moment with all of this, but especially with the problem of getting the plot where it needs to be. I know what the main character needs to do next, but he refuses to do it; he thinks it would be out of character, and I can't produce a convincing argument otherwise. "But if you don't do it the plot won't get moving!" I complain to him, and he answers politely, "Then perhaps you should think some more about the plot?" Gah. You're just words on paper, do what I say, and don't start making me feel guilty about how much I'm trying to hurt you and your girlfriend, you have to get hurt, it's inevitable. I refuse to stand back and let you have a nice placid uneventful life at the expense of my mystery.
Part of the trouble is that the fourth book demands a somewhat different structure from the first three; rather than just telling a story from start to finish with two or three closely related viewpoints, it also involves a lot of real-world history, presented mostly through interludes from people who otherwise don't appear directly, and a lot of references to other books. Also I am usually happy-ending girl, both in what I write and what I like to read, and the fourth book only has a happy ending to the extent that the main character doesn't actually die.
I'm struggling at the moment with all of this, but especially with the problem of getting the plot where it needs to be. I know what the main character needs to do next, but he refuses to do it; he thinks it would be out of character, and I can't produce a convincing argument otherwise. "But if you don't do it the plot won't get moving!" I complain to him, and he answers politely, "Then perhaps you should think some more about the plot?" Gah. You're just words on paper, do what I say, and don't start making me feel guilty about how much I'm trying to hurt you and your girlfriend, you have to get hurt, it's inevitable. I refuse to stand back and let you have a nice placid uneventful life at the expense of my mystery.