Thread: When good plots go bad.

So heres my problem. My new years resolution was to write novel, and what better way than with the NaNoWriMo program. Well it's been 23 day's and I am only a bit behind on my word count, but I have bigger problems. My plot is unwraveling at the seams. I am just looking for any advice on how to pull this together in my re-write, any seamstress's out there?

My story begins with a young woman recieving a package from her grandmother. As a child the girl remembered being very close to the woman, but the older she got, the less she saw her until eventually there was no relationship. In the package is a brief letter begging my main character to come visit her, and a pen wrapped up very carefully. So the main character goes to her granmother house, but everything has changed so much. The grandmothers castle appears deserted, and as if it has been that way for some time, on her journey to the nearest village the main character spots some very weird creatures, but does her best to ignore it. Jet lag? Anyway when she gets to the village there is a lot of rumors about the forest her grandmother lived in being evil, and about everyone that a few people have ventured in there and have yet to return. Nala fo course now feels compelled to find her grandmother, and believe it or not she ends up in the fantasy world of charm, with a pen that has to ability to create characters and bring them to life. The evil villian is a man that has the pen with the ability to change settings (thus the strange creatures in the woods in the real world) and somwhere in charm is a pen that can change plot. I have written this whole thing out from here, but its a mess, and if anyone has any idea's on how I can salvage it,let me know! Thanks!

Lol, you've written yourself into a corner!! But I'm surprised as you've begun with a plot with many many possibilities. Suggestion: Jump ahead to a totally unrelated segment and begin with an event and then go back and work up to that. It might help I dunno... I was going to do Nano but I was moving so yeah... it made me sad. You just doing your own NaNo? Considering it happened a few months ago...? Or is there one I don't know about? *looks around bewildered*

I would perhaps recommend just finishing it as is. Go for completing the novel, or the word count, in the time that a typical Nano allows, and AFTER that worry about putting it together in a more complete fashion. Basically, at near to 40,000 words, you should be almost there. I do believe that the point of Nano is not to write something you can immediately send off to a publisher. So just finish it, as best you can (you've only got a bit more than 10k words to go), and edit afterwards.

No, Nano was a few months ago, but I have finals durring November, and I had a friend commit suicide. Same concept just different month. Thank you all for your input. I just have to keep chuggin, and hopefully make some sense out of this. I am just frustrated, because I feel like this idea has a lot of potential, and I am just crashing it into the ground. Any other input would be greatly appriciated.

I have been re-reading your post's and I think the reason I am having to much difficulty is because there is so much oppourtunity and lattitude in my story. There are no limits, boundaries or rules, so of course I am overwhelmed by the possibilities. Does anyone have anyone else think this may be the issue? And if so how can I help control myself.

It is well known, that creating rules will help to provide you with creativity. A blank space is far more difficult to deal with; guide yourself. Give them some parameters, and see what takes place within those!

That is my advice. Zen, out.

The solution to this plot problem is staring you right in the face.

Nala uses the character pen to create a character who knows where the plot pen is. Then she gets the plot pen, and uses it to fix the plot of your book.

Easy as pie.

i dont know about your plot problem but i have a bit of advise. Make sure the part about her finding the pen and going to her grandmothers is only 1 or 2 chapters long. When a reader picks up a book, they mostly want a particular genre t fit their mood. So changing from an intriguing mystery story to a to a full blown narrnia type story halfway thru the book will be bad.

just make sure to make the first part short, and indicate the presense of a fantasy element in the blurb.