Thursday, July 5, 2012

More bombs good

WARNING: This is a writing update. I'm sorry if it's a little 'me-centric', but I'm hoping by blogging about my writing it might keep me more firmly on track when it comes to writing progress. Also, I might blog more consistently! Onward.

I can happily report that today I rewrote an entire scene and it is at least twice as awesome as it was before. That is not to say that it is now AWESOME, just that the previous iteration needed a lot of improvement.

I once wrote a blog post about dropping plot bombs. The basic premise is: if you feel like a scene is going nowhere, or lacking conflict/tension, there's one sure fire way to sort it out - drop in a plot bomb. Ask yourself, what's the worst that could happen right now to these characters? Be sure to throw in an evil cackle for good measure.

So before the scene went something like this: MC finds enemy soldiers (only three), kills two of them (one in cold blood) even though she's never killed anyone before, rescues girl, goes on her merry way (albeit a little depressed over killing two men).

Now: MC finds a group of around 20 soldiers holding a girl captive, she hides out until night and slips into the tent with the girl, kills two men in self defense and gets a stab wound in the side and almost strangled for her efforts, rescues girl and hightails it outta there with 18 pissed off soldiers on her tail. Will she make it?

Favourite bit today:

My eyes widened as the knife sunk into my side. I fisted his shirt and dragged him closer to me, staring into his snarling face. Victory glinted in his eyes. He thought he’d won. Perhaps he had.

Either way, I was taking him with me.


It's exciting being able to see improvements in your story, isn't it? How's everyone else's writing going?

13 comments:

  1. Congratulations! What were the major differences between scene A and B?

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    1. Higher stakes and bigger obsticles. And the MC definitely didn't get off lightly. I'm slowly teaching myself to punish my characters. ;)

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  2. Whoo, go you! I love those moments where the whole "what if this happened instead?" bug creeps into writing and makes everything eight times better. :)

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    1. That bug is a very good bug. We need to put him in a bug breeding farm so we have lots more!

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  3. Woohoo! The second version sounds so much more interesting :D
    Good for you!

    I did the same thing. Two characters go off on a camel. Along come the baddies who ask the heroine and sidekick questions. When they have no answers the baddies just drive off and the heroine and sidekick go on their way.

    New version: Baddies shoot at heroine and sidekick (and miss - the heroine has been shot before so I thought that was ok). Camel races off into the desert and then they are lost, at night, with no landmarks, no compass and the Sahara to wander around in!
    Yes. That made it all a bit more challenging :D

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    1. Wow, sounds like an interesting story you've got there, Prue. Lost in the Sahara on a camel with badies firing shots! Fun :)

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    2. Heh! Having got them into the desert though, it was a difficult job getting them out again!

      If I ever finish revision, you're welcome to read it :)

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  4. Congratulations on your writing progress!

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  5. I've heard of this method, but, for some reason, this post has really helped me to actually "get" it! Perhaps your excitement is contagious. Now I want to go through my first seven chapters again and do this even though I realllly need to get this other critique done and not fall any farther behind on blogs than I already am with my limited computer time. But I don't care! I'm excited!

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  6. You know what? I just might have to try this with my next WiP. Given the setting, the unexpected would work quite well. Thanks for the thought! :)

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  7. I LOVE that snippet you posted. Fan-freaking-tastic. I need to employ plot bombs when I'm having an "off" day. You know when I'm just not inspired. A plot bomb might be just what I need. Thanks for the reminder. And I want that Oreo cookie. Yum.

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  8. Hi I'm looking for your contact info for a bookreview/post?
    Can you email me at EdenLiterary at gmail dot com

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