Put It Into Reverse

Backing up when things just don't work

So a month ago (a month!) we left off where I was talking about story, point of view, character, and plot. Then… radio silence.

Um. Yeah, that was to… build suspense! Right! It was totally intentional!

Ah, who am I trying to fool here?

We did have a rough month, with a couple of major events with our family. We had to help someone move (twice!) and someone else had shoulder surgery. We also hit the end of volleyball season with the requisite playoff games. Sometimes, life happens, and you don’t get as much done as you’d like.

On top of that, I found myself muddling through “Salvage Run”. I had a background, an idea for the story, and an excellent idea for the main character. I started sketching out some scenes. Despite all my efforts, it ended up going nowhere.

With everything else going on, it took me a month to realize I needed to take a step back and rethink things.

At first, I thought that I was having problems with my opening. Too wordy, too slow. Too much information to get out there - I needed to introduce the MC, the members of the ship, establish their relationships, and plant seeds for the story itself. I decided that I needed to make my in media res opening more media as well, which added additional complications. No matter what I did, though, the story just wouldn’t gell.

There’s a technique in the software development world called “rubber duck debugging” (or just “rubber ducking”). Sometimes, it helps to explain your problems out loud. You don’t necessarily need any feedback; the act of explaining helps you understand the problem and see a solution. So your “audience” can be a co-worker, a spouse, or even a rubber duck. Or, if you want, yourself.

Yes, you can add “talking to yourself” as an official tool in your professional toolbox now. You’re welcome :)

So on the way home from work one day, I turned off the radio, skipped listening to a podcast, and talked to myself. That was when I realized that I was having problems with my MC. More specifically: I liked this guy.

He wasn’t a good guy, but he was interesting. A man on the run! While I was thinking about POV, I asked the question, “Do I need to understand what he’s running from?” My answer there was “no”. Despite that, though, I found myself thinking about his background. One idea fed into another and after a while, I realized that Mock bin Bahn was a pretty cool dude.

So I started to try and find ways to keep him alive at the end of the story. Because, well, a great character like that - you don’t kill him all at once!

Here’s the problem. My original idea for the story was literally cosmic horror. Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, IN SPAAAAACE! End of the story, everybody dies. Simple.

Then Bahn shows up, and now I want to keep him alive. I tried to, man. Oh, I tried to! I bent the plot. I relocated it. I gave him a couple of unbelievably convoluted escape routes. I redid the MacGuffin entirely to try and make it work. I just couldn’t do it.

Problem is, as I said - I liked this guy. What was I supposed to do, write this story without him?

… well, yes.

I thought about what would happen if I cut him from the story in “Salvage Run”. Instead of having an outsider character narrating what was happening, it would just be the crew. I could pick one of them as the POV character and the original cosmic horror tale would still work.

Meanwhile, I could (figuratively speaking) let Bahn catch another ship in a different universe. One where he could be the focus of a story instead of some creepy alien MacGuffin. At that point, I wouldn’t have to pare down his background to make it fit! Instead, it could be a central part of the story. Even better, with an entirely different story, and an entirely different plot, I could easily let him survive and ride off into the figurative sunset and…

… two thousand words or so later, I had a sketch of the plot for a story of art theft and (badly) mistaken identity on board an interstellar cruise liner.

Well, hey! Two stories for the price of one? I’ll take it!

So I’ll be returning to “Salvage Run” this weekend with this bit of clarity in tow. That should hopefully let me finish off the rough draft there. At that point, I’ll be able to bounce over to visit with Bahn again and give him the tale he deserves.

Problem solved! So tune in next week when I’ll talk plot, and y’all can see how horrible I am at that. We can muddle through it together, though. Thank you all for being my rubber ducks in this instance!