Yes! I finished section 1 of my novel Hero in Exile today (the rough draft, at least). The main character, Tristen, just had everything he thought he knew pulled right out from under him, and now he’s on his way “home” to a world he knows nothing about. New characters, new problems, change of scenery, and fresh new cultures and peoples to explore. One potential love interest down, another one about to come out of nowhere. Space barbarians and pirates threaten, and down on his mother’s homeworld, a religiously motivated genocide is about to begin. How incredibly exciting.
The really cool thing was that I read over all the stuff I’ve written in the past month that was really frustrating me. All of the edgy stuff that I was afraid I wasn’t pulling off right, and all of the twisted romantic climaxes that I was sure I’d done wrong. I resisted the urge to revise them, and when I was through reading them, I realized that there’s really something there. I could make this work. I might not be able to do it by the rewrite, but there is something compelling in there.
I’m also very happy with the overall structure of this section. It has a clear start, middle, and end, and all the major elements are clearly connected. Themes and events weave in and out of each other and affect the characters’ choices. It all leads up to a gloriously twisted climax that fulfills the promises of the structure while leaving the reader unfulfilled and wanting to read on.
At least, that’s how I see it now. Maybe I’m too close to the story to be a fair judge of its overall structure. In fact, I almost certainly am. Even if it hasn’t taken this structure on the page, however, it has taken structure in my mind. That is something.
When I started writing this novel, I only had a vague idea where I wanted to go. In fact, in the freewrite plot overview that I spat out back in Jordan, half of the events in this section didn’t happen, and the rest happened out of order. Prewriting was helpful, but ultimately the story took shape in my mind as I wrote it out. That everything eventually ended up tying back to the previous elements (at least in my mind) is very, very encouraging.
So, in short, I can say that this vacation was very much a success. I got through some of the most difficult parts in my novel, got over some severe obstacles holding me back, pushed BOTH of the wordcount meters deep into the red, rebuilt my enthusiasm of the story, and finished at exactly the spot where I wanted to end. I’m finally starting to get things right.
🙂
