Off-script

 

When I was considering rewriting my previous novella, Conditions Apply, I didn't actually read it over. It's been eighteen years since I originally wrote it, and I don't tend to read over my old work because it's not particularly good. I wanted to make notes from this but I ended up skimming over a lot. Two characters kept their names, one was replaced for something more "fantasy" style and another was changed completely. I feel I've made one of the protagonists far more sympathetic than she was originally portrayed. In a way it helped to just make notes from scratch and go in from a slightly different angle. And to start it further towards the deep end rather than boring people in the shallows of describing incidents leading up to the main event.

Even the notes I made didn't quite marry up to the final product. I often go off script if I've planned something out, and the story or something external decides I'm not going to stick to the plan. It's best not to fight whatever's driving the change in the direction. If you're invested, it's easier to trust the story knows where it's going. Dialogue is probably the one thing that can run away from you, if you're playing two parts and they have to react to one another and you might catch one character saying something you hadn't anticipated initially.

Sometimes you'll hear an author telling you inspiration had very little to do with how a book came to life. Peter Beagle stated desperation was what drove him to finish one of my favourite books, The Last Unicorn. My drive was simply to finish a novel, as I hadn't managed to do this for a long while. In 13 days, I had a draft of roughly 54000 words. I needed a foundation and the previous novella was a suitable candidate, I wasn't prepared to really come up with a brand new idea. I'd always intended on rewriting this anyway. So I decided to do it, and I did it. And while I thought it was boring, my editor was impressed and genuinely enjoyed reading it, stating she was honoured to be the first person to read it.

If I'd started with Josie's childhood, detailing the incidents that brought the antagonist to her doorstep, I would've eventually bored myself, and I'm sure my readers would be bored too. My decision to scrap this idea and get right to the point actually had me doing more in the space of an evening than I'd planned. I wasn't entirely sure at points what I had was going to work. If I don't finish something, it's because it doesn't want to be finished. If the story wants me to tell it, it'll make sure I tell it in full, exactly how it wants me to.