December 13, 2015

This point of view is cramping my style

I'm still chipping away at this story.  It's like digging for freedom with a spoon.

Since I've been writing on my phone so much, and since the Google Docs app on my phone doesn't have the capacity to tell me my word count, I've been setting goal based on the content of what I'll write as opposed to the quantity I'll write.  Mostly I've been writing a scene every day.  Strangely, the few times I've checked on my computer, I've been writing more than 1,000 words a day this way without really noticing or stressing about it.  The end is clear, and I don't have to ask myself, "Have I hit my quota today?  Let's check...Blarg!  I need 37 more words." 

This adjusts the accountability plan I came up with last week.  Instead, I'm back to using HabitRPG, which has changed its name to Habatica in my absence.  There's a lot going on with Habatica, but basically you get gold for doing the things you're supposed to do every day, and you can use that gold to buy armor and weapons that have stats and stuff, but mostly the armor and weapons make you feel more accomplished as your avatar looks cooler and cooler.  When you don't do the things you're supposed to do, you lose health points and eventually die unless you level up first.  Losing health makes me sad, and that's enough accountability for me.  Right now the only things I have to do are write a scene every day and make a blog post on Sunday and Thursday.  I also get some points for reading and listening to podcasts, and lose points if I read too much or listen to too many episodes to the point where I don't write my scene for the day or write my blog post.  Eventually, I'm going to expand this list.


A problem with this story has been stewing for a while, and it raised it's ugly head again yesterday when I got to the scene where the problem becomes a serious issue.  To understand, here's a few fun facts about this story as it exists now. 1. It is from the limited perspective of a single main character.  2. This main character has blackouts, during which he does things, which are progressively more awful.  He doesn't know what he gets up to until people tell him about it later.  The problem is that these summaries of the awful things he did are not nearly as satisfying as it would be to see the events play out.  Not only do I suspect it'll be boring or frustrating for the reader, but I'm also sad that I'm not writing those awesome fight scenes.

So I have a puzzle.  I know I'm going to end up writing fight scenes because I always end up writing fight scenes.  The struggle here is how to include them without jumping into someone else's point of view (which would be weird) or making it kinda cheesy (What if they mind meld and he gets to relive the memories of someone watching him be awful!)

You know, now that I've written it out, it doesn't sound as bad as it did in my head.  The truth is, however I decide to fix this, it's all going to live or die in the execution.

Again, this is not a problem to fix now, because I'm still just drafting at this point.  But I know it's something I'll need to go back and give special attention.  I'll think on it and see if I can find some examples of stories that also encounter this problem.

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