Writing Files: Sisters of String and Glass Has Let Me Plot It Out?

This story and I have been duking it out for months now, but I’m starting to feel like I finally have the upper hand?

If you’ve been reading along, and even reading some of the notes I make at the beginning of some of the parts, you might be aware of how off outline it became some months ago. Simply put, some of my characters decided they did not want to go along with what I had plotted out, not that I even make detailed outlines to begin with. At first, it felt like easy character switches, but then more characters became more vocal, so I ended up off outline.

Now, I’m a planner. I had spent time making the outline that I did. I had even envisioned certain scenes certain ways. I was not pleased when my characters decided to take the story into their own hands, but they turned out to be more stubborn than me. I even ended up with a third perspective thrown in. This story is called Sister of String and Glass. It was supposed to focus on the sisters. After many arguments, well, I lost, and now we all get to explore what goes on in Adrian’s internal world. I have to admit it wasn’t a bad thing to throw in. Sometimes I find myself enjoying writing his parts more than the sisters’.

But it was kind of terrifying writing off outline for a while. I had no idea what was going on until the words appeared in my screen. I had no clue what direction the characters were taking the story in. There were many times when my mind was just blank, and yet words and sentences and paragraphs appeared and then I had to make do with them. It was, actually, kind of fascinating to watch the story unfold before my eyes, but still terrifying. There were many, many days when I opened the document and could do nothing else but start writing words. Things came out that I didn’t even know about. Like the fae. I had no idea what their history was, but it was kind of interesting. It also solved a problem I didn’t even know I had.

I’m writing the last third now, the part where all these threads get tied up. The part where they no longer have much of a say because they did all the setup and now all the story lines are hurtling towards their conclusions. Because they are my characters and because I like to think I’m logical, there isn’t much they can do to change things now. There will be logical conclusions. At least, I think there will be.

At the very least, I was able to take what they gave me and take the general ending I had originally planned to figure out how the story is going to end. Meaning I got to plot out the rest of Sisters! Thanks to my characters, it’s going to take more time than I anticipated to get to the end, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

And I’m sure it is the light and not the train coming to get me. Now that they’ve gotten their endings set up and it’s too late for me to push them back into my original outline, they’ve quieted down. It’s just like them; raise a fuss until it’s too late. There are still a few minor things they get to decide, but nothing that will have such a major impact on the story. Thank goodness.

Anyways, I think these characters have figured out I’m not going to force them back in line and I think they’re aware of the other characters clamoring for my attention. The men and women of Sisters have decided to gracefully bow and let me make an outline for the last third of the story. Some of it actually works well with the original outline, some of it is still up in the air, and some of it has me changing plans. But it’s planned out to the end chapter by chapter.

Unfortunately, because other characters are now getting impatient with me, it’s going to be a fast ride. I’ve decided that the slower pace I was taking in the beginning has to be abandoned. Each chapter will have to have one major plot point to get me to the end. I’m still trying to take as much time as I can during the chapters, but the story will advance at a faster rate than I had planned.

And I think it has to be fast so these characters don’t have time to change things on me again! It’s bad enough they introduced new people to me, and had the gall to introduce another fairy tale in. Sheesh!

But, well, there it is. I can see the end of Sisters, and it’s going to come faster than I expected. But I hope you’ll enjoy it!

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