PLOTTING YOUR NOVEL

I have been agonizing over my novel. I'm happy with Act One, about 200 pages, but have been at a loss to make the story build toward the climax, which I have in mind.

Then I realized that it takes time. My friend Harry was in a movie once that I thought was terrible. He told me the studio only gave the screenwriter three weeks to write the script.

No wonder it was so full of cliches, which are quick and easy. The people at Pixar Animation, the great studio that did "Finding Nemo" and the "Toy Story" movies, take five years to produce a movie. They take three years just to develop the story, and they are bunch of pros.

OK, that makes sense. Stories are complicated. If it takes them so long, I should take my time and not expect to do it overnight.

That makes me feel better. So I have a new attitude, a new feeling about plotting my big hairy 600-page novel.

I felt like I was hacking my way through the jungle with a machete, blindfolded, and wondering why I was getting nowhere fast.

I feel a lot better. I thought there was something wrong with me.

-- Roger

© Copyright 2011, Roger R. Angle