have you ever started a story

[Blue_Roses]

...gotten, say, oh, about 12 chapters in and the whole thing starts to take on a life of it's own? I am desperately trying to finish this fictional story and from the first chapter to now the 13th that I'm working on, it has changed on me--literally. What I started with in the first 2nd and 3rd chpater no longer exist as my main plot. Now I am thrust into finishing it so fast, so I can edit it to where this story seems to want to go:crazy:

Does this make sense to some of you??? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!!

[oneighty]

1. If you do not write for a living

and have no deadline do not worry. Go where the story leads you. Often it is better than what one plans.

I think

180

[InvisibleTouch]

2. Go with it.

If the story is writing itself, go with the flow. It'll turn out better than anything you could have consciously planned - and if you try to force it back into some pre-conceived restraint, you'll ruin it.

Sit back and enjoy the ride.

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. My third (unpublished) novel has gotten completely out of hand

with secondary characters hijacking the plot. What started as short digressions wound up driving the story line; minor characters have become celebrities who demand their place in the closing chapter. With a lot of wheedling and nudging I kept the basic plot in place, but now I've been working on finishing the last three chapters for over a year, and those three chapters have expanded to nine, and still growing.

I've been going over the early chapters to see where it first began to diverge, on the theory that it doesn't want to end because, in hewing to the original plot line, I'm maybe not telling the right story.

I've been advised in my writers group that, though it may cost in time, the best thing might be to let it write itself out, just to get it out of your system. Once done, if you prefer the original plot line, you can go back and re-write. This will, of course, give you two distinctly different stories. But I wonder if I had given the story its head if I would not have spent the last futile year trying to finish the 'wrong' story.

[Blue_Roses]

4. excellent point

one of the minor characters was to be killed off, but they refuse to die and to be honest, I'm okay with that...for now...

[OldLeftieLawyer]

5. Have fun with it

Just write, let it go, have a ball, be as goofy as you want to be.

If, however, you're writing this with a mind to selling it to a publisher (or an agent, for openers), you'll want to work hard on the next draft. Pull things together, tighten them up, get rid of things that are extraneous, don't advance the plot, screw up the narrative arc.

As my editor at HarperCollins says to me, all the time, "If it doesn't advance the story, take it out."

I just finished reading Philip Roth's latest novel, "The Plot Against America," and, while I think the end fizzled, it is a terrific novel, and a great example of a perfect narrative arc. You might want to take a break from your writing and read it to see how the parts of a novel can seem disparate and disconnected, yet they all come together, all the while moving the story forward.

Best of luck to you.

[iamjoy]

8. If It Doesn't Advance The Story Take It Out.

I read advice similiar to that all the time. But I have to wonder how true it is. If the story is plot driven, that's a given. But some stories are character driven, or mileau. And in those cases, there may be several scenes necessary for giving the background or feel that don't really advance the plot. I think particularly in epic novel, plot is sometimes weak or there are several sub-plots woven together.

Anyway, I don't think a lot of literary fiction has a tight plot.

So, wouldn't you think it depends on the type of story you are writing?

Sometimes you have this plot, but after you get to know the characters, you realize that they wouldn't do the things you had in the plot.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

10. The reason you hear it all the time

is because it's true.

Even with character-driven stories, the stuff that's hanging there, not going anywhere, has to be taken out. It's called "dirt" - matter out of place (thanks to John Gardner for that one).

No, it's about fiction, regardless of whatever kind you're writing. If you don't follow this maxim - and, of course, we all follow it our own way - you end up shoving stuff in the reader's face that smacks of "Look at me! I'm WRITING!"

And, when that happens, the story fails.

If you find that your characters wouldn't do the things you had in the plot, you'd better rethink your plot and/or your characters.

[Jamastiene]

6. I've heard of a phenomenon my friend,

who writes music, calls "The Muse". He sees it as a collective conciousness he has tapped into. It could be that you are just enjoying writing too.

[iamjoy]

7. I'm Dealing With That Now

I had this whole idea for a plot, but then I started realizing it wasn't really going to work that way, but I was already so into the characters, and the story just sort of went its own way.

I'm almost ashamed to admit it has become a romance because I didn't want to write a trashy bodice ripper.

[wryter2000]

9. ahem

I write (and am published in) romance. There's nothing to be ashamed about in the genre. If your book isn't trashy, it won't be a trashy romance, either.

BTW, this is my 8000th post, and if it's defending the genre I love, I'm proud of it.

[Wetzelbill]

11. Step back and take a little time off

Reorganize your thoughts. Look at it as objectively as possible, maybe do some new editing and then just go with the flow after that.

[Codeblue]

12. Rarely

do I even plan the plot more than a couple chapters ahead. Or I have the very beginning and what I WANT to happen in the end but nothing in between. Then once I get past the beginning, it just goes and I realize that rarely will I ever get that ending I had planned. I can never plan that much plot ahead of time because as I write I realize my characters would never lead the story in that direction.

[alrightjim]

13. Puddin'head Wilson

This was Twain's book he never intended, and I think it his best work. He was writing about these twins and this subplot kept getting in the way and pretty soon he chucked aside his original plan and went with the subplot. There are two ways to write. You can craft a detailed outline and fill in the gaps by the numbers and have yourself a publishable but formulaic novel, or you can write from your heart, about WHAT YOU KNOW, and "feel" your way through to the finish. This is the best way, it cannot be just X and O regimentation.

Get after what comes from your gut, what is crying to be expressed. This voice will take over your work if you let it. You can organize, and correct all you want later. If you have a good story, with compelling characters, you've done more than what even most published writers really accomplish.

But the bottom line is, if you can write, this advice will help, and if you can't, this advice and a dime gets you a bad cup of coffee...in a Raymond Chandler novel.

Jimmy