Recently, I returned to writing a story that is just so much fun, way sillier and more delicious than my usual stuff (closer to my posts here, I suppose). The thing is, I am trying a new way of writing, working with a relatively final synopsis as a plot guidepost as I write rather than flying into the mist.
Have I mentioned I am a curmudgeon when it comes to change? A long time ago, I had this quote hung up in my kitchen, just to remind myself:
“Change is, by definition, unsettling.”
So anyway. Changing my process is deeply disturbing to me, yet necessary.
I’ve got a sort-of working synopsis now, and a first chapter, but am stumped as to where to go from here. Let me lay out my options:
1. Heroine spies totally foxy hero from across the ballroom.
2. Totally Foxy Hero (TFH) is unimpressed with heroine. But bored. And doesn’t like it when someone else makes fun of her. So decides, maybe, to make her his project for the Season.
3. Heroine has secret identity. TFH will not discover secret identity until way later in the book, causing the all-important black moment.
4. Heroine has to work on secret identity work.
5. TFH and Heroine have to run into each other, even though he is Man About Town and she is a girl on her third Season.
So what do I do? How do I get them together? I don’t want to lay out all the mundane details of her secret identity life–it involves writing, of all boring to describe things–and I want to get them all hot and bothered as soon as possible. I wrote a scene where her Horrid Mother demands Heroine at least try to get betrothed, but it’s not sitting right in my brain.
Got any ideas? Apologies for the lackluster post, this and the state of my kitchen floor is about all that’s in my head right now. And you didn’t need to read about mopping.
I hate being stuck with how to move forward, even though you know the story. Can you throw them together some place uenxpected but she is there because of her secret and he is wondering why she is there and intrigued all the same. Just throwing that out there since I don’t know the secret either. But, it sounds like a fun read, just the kind I like.
Amy:
That suggestion makes me think of some possibilities! Thanks!
I’m still dazed after gazing at the photo of the gorgeous man on your post. If your heroine comes across him in this position – er situation – a sizzling scene could well follow. She IS on her third season after all and no longer Little Miss Prim.
How about the two of them “find” each other in the garden. She thinks he’s followed her out there, and he thinks the same thing! Makes for a sparky misunderstanding between the two of them. Or is that so passe that mopping the floor is suddenly so, so tempting! Take care. Caroline x
If you’re attempting to make a change in how you write–and I was once a total fly-in-the-mist writer so I sympathize–you probably ought to get inside your characters’ heads a little more. Give them both something they really want–and if it’s the same thing for cross purposes, even better.
A jewel, a book, marriage or not marriage, anything goes!
Amy has the best idea so far. All I can think of are cliches.
Thanks, everybody! Knowing you all know my pain–somewhat–is making the forward motion less painful.
Although I should mop the floor.
Blogger done ate my comment…
Classes/genders mingled at the theater and art exhibits. Trouble is finding a meeting that isn’t a cliche.
He could run her down in his flashy curricle.
They could get into a fight over the last copy of Byron’s latest in the bookstore.
Her historically inaccurate panties could fall down in front of him.
All good ideas, Janet! I am going to have them get into a squabble somewhere, I think.
I’d have them meet in a book store or at a library. Not very exciting, but it could have something to do with her secret and he could be doing research on some event or mystery, maybe related to her secret.
At a house party in Brighton.
How about the heroine witnessing a young boy stealing something from TFH – so she runs after the boy making TFH think she’s the pick-pocket. (maybe they had a squabble earlier on in a bookstore…and they both dislike each other)