When was the last time you had a revelation about your own novel that changed things for the possible better?

The Chatters
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There are times in our writing journey when we get those revelations towards our stories that make us go “Damn, maybe this change truly is for the best”. This is where we learn that the story was better going in a different direction than the direction we were settled on. That’s the revelation! Whether it was genre or something relating to the plot or characters, you have that immediate revelation that makes you realize that story does need to change to make it work.

Have you ever had that happen? When was the last time? Tell me in detail if you can.

My Turn:

Project Red has this where going with the unreliable narrator might not be great for me as doing that isn’t my strong suit. The readers can know that Jorildyn is a bad character and is lying, but the characters in the story won’t know that till it is too late. That’s my revelation.

Project Succession works better without the Succession Trials and other nonsense that makes zero sense. Aeris can still have a connection with the Thornwoods as it is still her family, but she is a Knight. That is the revelation.

What about you? Thoughts and feelings?

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all the time as i literally am learning the place as I go, fun thing about pantsing the whole thing

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True, very true.

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it makes it pretty interesting as the audience and u are learning things along the way

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Same as this lol.

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Also, very true.

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It’s all structural changes for me atm.

Earlier this year I was trying to find a way to condense hundreds of years of history into the fifty-year narrative of my fantasy novel. I was trying to do it the ‘traditional’ way (you know LOTR, ASOIAF), but it wasn’t exciting me.

I was reading Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights and a history of the French Revolution Citizens by Simon Schama. I also read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. So I had the idea to synthesise their structures (fragmentary, narrative history, footnotes) into my novel! Now it’s a fragmentary novel with the narrative interspersed with in-world academic papers & essays.

Also I’ve had a superhero novel The Lightning Girl in the works for ages, working & reworking the narrative. I’ve finally landed on a version I’m happy with! This version reads like a comic run, each arc being a short story serving an overarching narrative.

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The only revelation I’ve had lately is to kill off a character, and to do it while she’s still pregnant, so that the mc feels guilty and changes his behavior. Previously the girl lived and had his baby, and then surprised him when she showed up at his front door with a toddler he hadn’t known about. Better to just snuff her. (×_×)

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My revelation was going “wait a minute, I don’t even like romance novels or have any interest in sex” so removing all that stuff I put in my original Wattpad writing to try and get reads. My stuff became SOOOOO much better when I started focusing on what I want in a story instead of trying to get reads. Also the fact that a character doesn’t need to be “broken” to be likeable

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Me too!

Just found a nice location that has a deep evil past, even though it looks peaceful… Strange how something so quaint can hold such a horrid past…

Nope, that would be my mind again going into overdrive with a single line from a character…

SD

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Not so much revelations, but realisations…

The worst is that I may never finish my tale… Or other works either…

Mainly because I have so many ideas that would change the whole demographic of said stories and time will always be against me to complete these endeavours…

I need to decree what will and would work then do much to interject the subject matter without having to do mass amounts of work… It is so tiresome upon the mind…

One day though, eh?

SD

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that is how the mc in my current story is, they look peaceful but they hold a past covered in blood

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I tend to have those type of thoughts before I start writing. Like the foundational stuff, just one thought, and all of a sudden it’s different.

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It was a short story and the revelation was based on something my mother said.

I had a story idea where a prosecutor in a death penalty case got so emotionally worked up that his hatred of the defendant was on full display during the closing arguments of the penalty phase.

However, my mother noted that a lawyer probably wouldn’t do this, since they’d have to worry about potential appeals and whatnot.

So, the prosecutor outwardly stays professional, and the contrast is between his rational surface and the inward hatred he feels for the defendant. I think this works better, as it’s an interesting contrast, and shows tension between his professional demeanor and personal feelings.

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So I was writing a fic about where the guy is getting ready for a wedding and i was creating a illusion for the reader that it is his wedding but actually he was the best man for his best friends wedding who he was in love with for years.

anyway and the suit was a bit ill fitted idk why I added the detailed but it seemed to me it should be like that, then later someone told me the suit seemed like a metaphor about how he is getting ready for something he desparately wanted for himself but got the role which didn’t fit with what he actually wanted.

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Before writing the novel, I plotted out most of the major beats that needed to happen, and refined/refreshed certain aspects so I knew exactly where I was going.

I always had a good idea about lore, and most concepts mostly nailed down–but after plotting, I focused mostly on lore crafting, refining, poking weak-points adding things in, refining magic systems, etc. Just getting that shit LOCKED DOWN.

During the lore process (which I always do better while writing) I nailed down some major character backstories, planned arcs, etc. I’m talking like 40k backstory, arcs, etc. planned for each character, all of them slotting into the main plot of the novel, sometimes shifting things around, but not completely squandering it.

The problem I came to–and my revelation–was that I accidentally put myself into too tight a box. When it came time to write the actual novel, I felt stuck (despite having a good enough outline) and felt wrong about the whole mess of it. Atop this, writing backstory (which are not meant to be reader-friendly, I could put in whatever I wanted) is different from writing an actual novel, and, for the first time, I experienced such a deep insecurity with my writing it became impossible to continue.

The revelation struck, though, that I was forcing myself to follow the plot I originally structured so hard (and minding the backstories) that I didn’t leave myself open to new ideas or flexibility. Once I opened myself up to changing aspects, maybe making things not canon anymore, I felt so much relief. I enjoyed structuring the new plot, figuring out ideas, everything felt right.

So the revelation is: Structure things, figure out main plot ideas, but when it comes time to write the novel–don’t be afraid of changing things up or sorting around new beats/changing backstory ideas.

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