Photo by Denny S. Bryce
I’ve been remiss with my writing lately. Or I’ve been writing, but not satisfied with the results or I’ve reached a brick wall when it comes to ideas for the never-ending vampire saga, which is not really about vampires. Somewhere in the middle of the madness, I’m going to figure out exactly what it is I want to say and say it.
But believe me that’s more difficult to do than you can imagine.
I write and write and the more I write the more I just don’t know what it is I’m writing about. I get so caught up in figuring out who my characters are than putting these people into situations that they have to deal with – it’s crazy. I’ve got a 70,000 word manuscript and I swear only about 35,000 words have to do with my main character dealing with a situation in a action, goal-focused way.
Okay, the real question is how can I break free of writing backstory? I want to put my character into the scene, into the action, into the midst of all the shit, and let her fight her way out. But I keep going back. Trying to answer the same questions. Who is she? What is she? How does she look? What’s on her mind?
That’s just not good. Anybody have any tips? I need to stop writing backwards and start the story in the middle of the action.