I blamed Finn in my last post for making me wallow, so let's talk about Finn.
The trouble with Finn is that he came second. When I first decided to expand on the scenes I’d written about a woman trying to be more “fun,” it was just going to be Imogen’s story. I only started writing scenes from Finn’s POV as an exercise to get a better grip on his personality. I did, and then it was immediately clear that he needed to be a narrator just as much as Imogen did.
In that first draft, I figured out that he had a job that he was struggling in and that he didn’t enjoy but that he absolutely would not leave…but I couldn’t figure out why he was digging his heels in. He’s competitive, yes. He has too much pride, for sure. He’s deeply ashamed of failure, granted. But why?? Where is it all stemming from?
I thought I’d gotten a handle on it while starting on revisions, but after getting through episode five, I went to work on what would be a new chapter for the start of episode six and I realized that I was five episodes in and I didn’t have enough emotional progress for Finn. And that stalled me completely.
With Imogen I know exactly what she thinks the problem is, what the actual problem is, and how she takes baby steps the whole way. Those first five episodes are a slow but steady growth that she doesn’t really understand or even notice but that she’s nonetheless demonstrating in every chapter.
But at this point there’s not really any of that for Finn. Admittedly he’s not much of an internal processor and he’s in some pretty serious denial, but his chapters should still show him changing, or things changing for him, regardless of his awareness or interpretation of those changes.
I think a key component of a romance is how the protagonists’ relationship with each other is impacting or challenging their wider worlds. Finn’s impact on Imogen is abundantly clear but Imogen’s impact on Finn is very surface level. His story is still largely about Imogen’s arc, not his. Which brings me back to the question: why won’t he just quit this job that he doesn’t like?
After a week or two of being frustrated and trying to think through the problem, I finally got back to writing through it. This is another lesson I’ve learned since I got my mojo back and one that I’m continually relearning.
Verbatim transcript of my inner dialogue
I don’t know what’s supposed to happen next!
So start writing.
But I don’t know what to write!
Just start writing something.
But I need to know what I’m writing first!
Write whatever until you find the thing that’s right.
But I don’t even know where to start!
Doesn’t matter. Just write something.
That’s hard!
…
I wrote whatever and I solved the problem!
Yep.
Every god damn time.
I tend not to actually delete anything since I started on these stories. I just move snippets and scenes to an archive folder. I was going through that for Imogen & Finn (see my last post about staring and fixating instead of actively writing) and found a bit of a scene where Finn shares a little more with Imogen than he was expecting to. It didn’t really work in the scene that I’d initially written it for (hence the move to the archives) but I reminded myself that where it fits in doesn’t matter. I just need to let the scene play out a little more to see if that kernel of background information rings true for Finn.
And lo: it feels like the start to something good.
Have I totally figured out the trouble with Finn? Absolutely not. But I am feeling better, like I’m moving in the right direction. Hell, just that I’m moving. That’s enough for me.
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