New here and stuck...
Hello everyone!
I am new to this site and excited to get started reading what you all have written and what you think about my writing.
I am having a bit of an issue with my plot right now and thought maybe some of you could help me out.
My original plan was to write a New Adult book about Addie and Matt. Addie is a journalist whose parents died two years ago and she now lives in their family home working as a journalist. Matt is a successful actor who hit it big a few years back. Addie met Matt 2 years ago while interviewing him on the premiere of his new movie. They started dating (him being famous isn't the center of the story, so it isn't the typical cliche about the famous hot guy and the clumsy outcast girl who manages to capture his attention) and he eventually proposes to her.
This is where I am stuck. My whole idea for conflict was going to be when they married and moved in together and Matt ended up having to go to another country to film a movie. And during his absense Addie would spend a lot of time with his brother and they would unintentionally fall in love. Matt would come back, she would confess and leave him for his brother. His brother would get cold feet and tell her he didn't want a relationship and he didn't mean for any of it to happen. Addie is alone again. Matt shows back up and tells her he still loves her, and I would work out the details until it ended with them deciding to try to work it out.
My problem is this, with what I have written so far, the pace of the story is such that if I were to continue it would be a million pages before I even got to them moving in. Im probably 15 pages in and only about 12 hours have gone by. They can't just get married in a page and he moves away to europe or wherever on the next page to begin the conflict.
So, my solution was to think of it as being 2 books, and the sequel's conflict would be the falling in love with the brother thing. However, that left me without a conflict for the first book, and whenever I would think of a conflict it always had something to do with unfaithfulness or Addie/Matt finding out a huge secret about one of them, but I have purposefully written my characters to be lovable, good people. I want Matt to be this gorgeous, kind, loving guy, and I want Addie to be strong and confident and a great match for him. I want their love to make the reader WANT what they have, making the falling in love with the brother thing a real tear jerker when Matt finds out. So I don't want to ruin it with making one of them a liar or a cheater (one night stand type of cheater). I feel that would make me have to totally change one or both of their personalities to fit that type of behavior and those aren't the characters I want to write about.
I apologize for rambling but any help or feedback would be appreciated.
I think rather than leaping ahead, just write everything that you want to write and you may find it is one novel. The pace may change as you go along. I'm not a novelist though!
Thank you for your feedback. I think I may have to read a few more books and see how they change pace to get a sense of how it works.
For some reason when I am writing I literally draw a blank on how much time should pass between scenes or chapters.
write it out. Worry about plot later. In fact don't worry about plot. Don't worry about characters. Tell a story?
Just write.
One way to approach it would be to write the novel as, say, five key scenes from different points in their lives. This would concentrate the story on the interesting bits, allow you to cover their whole lives journeys. It would also force you to think about what the key scenes in their lives and how they connect to each other.
If it doesn't work then at least you've written five scenes.
Thank you! You've all made some really great points and I am definitely going to try starting from a point in the plot where something is already happening. And I love the idea about writing a few scenes and then connecting them after.
what i do is just write and then make the plot, like a sculptor with a block of marvel. Don't like your piece? scrap it and restart on it, until you're satisfied. Ask other's around you to read it for you, because sometimes the writer is over critical of their own work.