I've just realised something about a story I've been writing that has totally taken me by surprise. I havn't added to it for a couple of weeks as I got stuck on it at an early point, where the story had gone a bit lame before it had really got going and I felt bored by the storyline; not a good sign of a gripping read, right? I've written writing prompt snippets every few days since then before coming back to it tonight and it jumped out at me: my main character, a supernatural spirit/woman, who I thought I'd find interesting is actually shockingly dull and two dimensional. I just can't get a handle on her, there's nothing there, she's made of fluff and air. On the other hand I find myself thinking and wondering about the other primary character, a fairly intelligent but otherwise average, withdrawn, middle-aged man with a washed up career.
I went back into my story tonight planning on adding bits here and there to what I already had in order to flesh it out. Now I understand that it's all the wrong way around. I'm going to pull out all the bits about the man and see where he goes without the other character. Will she come into it at all? Will it be the same story from a different point of view? I don't know. Maybe I'll end up abandoning it altogether. Initially I was appalled by the prospect - oh, my efforts! - but I'm excited again now. Here's a chance to get my story back on track/write a new one and grow. Funny, but it seems so obvious now. I guess sometimes you have to get some distance from something then take it by surprise so you can see what's really going on, because I really was blind to it before.
I went back into my story tonight planning on adding bits here and there to what I already had in order to flesh it out. Now I understand that it's all the wrong way around. I'm going to pull out all the bits about the man and see where he goes without the other character. Will she come into it at all? Will it be the same story from a different point of view? I don't know. Maybe I'll end up abandoning it altogether. Initially I was appalled by the prospect - oh, my efforts! - but I'm excited again now. Here's a chance to get my story back on track/write a new one and grow. Funny, but it seems so obvious now. I guess sometimes you have to get some distance from something then take it by surprise so you can see what's really going on, because I really was blind to it before.