As a struggling novelist, I’ve had a project on my desk for way too long. Today, however, I found something that will help me enormously. You see, this is a historical novel, set in the American Revolution. It follows a family who struggles with a revolution of their own during this turmoil.
I had several characters and didn’t know exactly what to do with them. Each had a personality and a problem and they just weren’t meshing like I wanted them to.
Enter the Story Fix Blog. After reading today’s guest blog by Art Holcomb, I followed the link to the small book he recommended. Reading it, something clicked in my head that has me working assiduously again on this novel which I had put on back burner.
Following the outline in this book, I have created a database template for this novel – and any others I work on. Column one is the listing of plot points. Each subsequent column is the plot outline for one of my characters. The kicker is that this plot derives from the nature of the character.
It is the best of both worlds, the character driven and the plot driven novel, because the character drives the plot. I’m back into the fray with renewed zest. I can hardly wait to see how this turns out.
Have you come up with a new wrinkle on your writing?
Ephemera Captured 
So glad to hear you’ve found new impetus for your novel. Writing revelations are always a bonus! I use a spreadsheet to keep track of story details — makes it easy to provide chapter outlines when needed, but doesn’t help me write them. 🙂
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That is the crux of the matter. It doesn’t help me write the story. It just helps me keep on track with the character arc.
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