And here I thought I was procrastinating...

Well, I was, actually. It's always easier to revise than to write new stuff. I'm more of a rewriter than a writer.

But in the process of scanning a relatively recent scene that I'd thought was mostly done but was reading through again just to put me in the right frame of mind to move into the next scene, of which a couple of paragraphs or so were already written, though they didn't resonate with me, hence the stalling tactics...anyway, while I was looking over the "finished" scene, I started seeing ways to make it better and so of course I started fiddling with it (this, too, is writing, I told myself) and suddenly it was no longer a matter of making cosmetic adjustments but doing some real word surgery, which not only gave the tension a sharp twist, but also tied in some earlier threads and handed me the perfect event to launch the next scene with the stakes much higher than they were before.*

And I'd never have discovered it if I'd pushed ahead with new words instead of putzing over the old ones. My meticulous, plodding brain needs time to sift through the layers and find the treasure.

This is why I obsessively compulsively rewrite. This is also why I'll never be prolific.

But I'd rather have the treasure.

(*In case anyone was wondering, that run-on sentence was 144 words.)

Geometry for Writers

For a long time, I never knew I wrote in triangles.

I discovered this phenomenon the day a writer friend told me that she adored romantic triangles in stories. I agreed that such made for interesting reading, perhaps a good deal more interesting than the usual "will they ever quit fighting each other and make love instead" variety of conflict. Then it occurred to me that the triangle makes an excellent framework for any kind of conflict. And the more you have, the more complex and interesting the conflicts become.

In other words, triangles are not just for lovers.

As all you math whizzes out there already know, triangles are composed of three points and three lines connecting those points. (If it turns out I'm wrong about that, break it to me gently.) In a novel, the points can be any three characters and/or situations that are in conflict with one another. Characters can participate in more than one triangle, creating branching or overlapping conflicts, or stand as the central point to a number of joining triangles until the plot starts to look like a geodesic dome. There can be triangles within triangles. And they don't all have to be of the equilateral variety. Sometimes two points will ally with each other, changing the shape and balance of the conflict.

I don't know what it says about me that I instinctively reach for the triangle when shaping the conflicts in my story. I don't know how many writers do this. But I do know that if anyone out there is struggling to add or deepen conflicts (and I'm told a dearth of conflict is one of the leading causes for a manuscript to be rejected), try adding a third element of opposition to your plot events or character interactions, and watch that boring line between two points take on new and compelling dimensions.

This year I resolve...

To finish The Knife-Giver.

Anything else I accomplish is whipped cream and cherries.