In a previous blog post, I wondered whether your draft might be like a hoarder’s house. In this post, we will look at a different issue, the scattered draft.
One of my volunteer gigs is to teach a children’s Bible class in Tallinn at our church. My class is very small, and the students are all under the age of five. A few weeks ago, I learned a new word from one of my little friends. She said her star coloring was “jaga jaga.” I loved this word immediately, but I wanted to understand its meaning. Her father kindly explained to me that it is slang in his native country Nigeria, which means “scattered.” Jaga jaga is the perfect onomatopoeia! It sounds like your thoughts are scattered.
So, is your draft a little jaga jaga?
Do you have SO MANY plot points that you aren’t sure what the main plot is? Are there subplots to the subplots? Do you drop threads right and left? Is Chekhov’s gun left sitting on the mantel for the whole novel without ever being fired?
Do not despair? You can fix it.
Many first time novelists think that in order to sustain a novel length project they have to keep throwing in surprises to keep the narrative drive going. Eventually they’ve twisted so many times, no one knows what is going on, including them.
Once you have a draft, even if it is a little jaga jaga, look for the throughline. What is the main plot? If you can’t see the forest for the trees, try coming at it from the main character’s viewpoint. What is their main goal for the novel? What are the obstacles standing in their way? What choices do they make? Once you map out a clear path for them, you’ll be on the way to getting some clarity for your novel.
If you would like to work on your inciting incident and how it works to make your main character choose, please consider joining me for a free webinar, Wallop Your What If: Imagine a Better Inciting Incident. We’ll go through some questions and examples to make sure that your first big plot event has the power to propel your main character through a novel.
How would you like to get to that One Yes with your novel?
Historical Fiction and Mystery, Upmarket, and Literary Fiction work with Robin at Readerly to craft the compelling novels readers crave about people who’ve made a difference.
