I had hoped to finish Fade Into Me in time to enter it into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest this year. It looked like I was going to do it too, until I wrote myself in a completely new direction. My characters took over and led me down this path I hadn't planned on going.
Now, you may be saying, why don't you just pick them up and put them back where they belong? My only answer is to have you to read this...
One moment Ryanne stared at me in terror, and then she collapsed in agony. I tuned in on her energies and watched as they frantically rearranged themselves. The speed of the transformation sent spasms through her body.
“By the hearth, what have I done?” I scooped her into my arms and bullied my way to the door. Dancers bumped into me oblivious to to my urgency. The music pounded with the rhythm of my heart. Somewhere along the way, I passed Heather and Scott and they fought their way to me by the time I stepped into the cool night.
“What’s going on?” Heather shrieked as she saw her sister writhing in my arms.
“I don’t know! She just collapsed.” I struggled to hold onto Ryanne. Where was the damn car?
Ryanne went limp in my arms and the silence assaulted me. I hadn’t realized how loud her moans and gasps for air had been. Heather froze.
“Is she—” She choked and reached for her sister.
“No,” I knelt down and set Ryanne on the sidewalk. “She’s still breathing.”
Heather reached out to hold her sister’s hand and I looked at Ryanne’s aura. Everything had calmed down. Whatever started in the club had run its course and settled into a new pattern.
This was my fault. What if coming through the barrier had made her cells unstable? She could die in one of these pain racked episodes all because I was too stupid to keep her in the Fae.
****
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| My new guilty pleasure. Beauty & the Beast |
I'm not 100% sure where we are headed with this, but it has more conflict than my previous plan. Yummy delicious conflict. Because you see, Liam MUST marry Ryanne and soon, but now she's going to remember why he wants to marry her, that she doesn't get a long with him at all, and there's the added deception he used on her while her memory was gone. Which she will definitely remember.
And the poor boy is too proud to just admit he's fallen in love with her in spite of his prejudice against humans. When he does admit it he's going to have his work cut out for him if he hopes to convince Ry he's telling the truth...for once.
See, much better than one steamy little flirting scene.
When your characters take over do you roll with it, or show them who's the boss?
Bet you're even more excited to write now!
ReplyDeleteI had one small scene planned with this character, but as I approached it, I realized that character was key to the ending. So, he became a major player. And he's a really cool character, so it worked.
Yes! Isn't it amazing how these characters are their own person even without us?
DeleteAnything and everything is possible in the first draft. I usually give my characters space during the first draft. =) And then we're married during revisions so... =)
ReplyDeleteLOL, I like that analogy!
DeleteI've been following the ABNA thread over at Absolute Write. Lots of people are excited and/or critical of it.
ReplyDeleteI roll with it. The characters know best...especially the female ones for some reason.
ReplyDeleteOooh, sounds like an interesting book. Can't wait to read it.
ReplyDeleteSometimes scenes go in directions that I did not expect. But that always leads me to a better place, so I just go with it.
roll with it! I'm doing ABNA this year.
ReplyDeleteI always roll with it, but I reserve the right to edit them back into shape.
ReplyDeleteI totally roll with it, mostly because I cannot count the key plot points or interesting nicely tied endings that have happened purely on accident because of this. It's scary to let them take over but look what happens when you do! :)
ReplyDelete<3