Writing yourself into a hole

Bud

Bud

I'm assuming we've all done it...

I'm not in a hole at the moment, per se, but I've got two a key point in my novel, where the pace begins to up considerably, and I've realised things are slightly more complicated than I envisaged. Probably more a collection of red ends and dead herrings. It's mostly to do with characterisation. For example, the idea is my narrator finds out about a particularly nasty thing that his friend has done to an innocent young woman, yet still remains friends with him despite his reservations. That part would be consistent, but it would screw up the ending, because the narrators friends (girlfriend in particular, she takes a very dim view of violence towards women) would find out about his attitude and ostracise him. He would therefore be on his own, which is not the intention.

So, back to the dark corridor and try another door with that one... I think I've got a door which would work, fortunately, otherwise I will be in a hole.

There are various other things that I'm now agonising over, having found the going relatively straightforward up to this point. I suppose I should have remembered that if one of my characters is going to come up with an ingenious scheme to wreck someone's life, it's me who has to work out the details.

Any other people with experience of this sort of situation?

Bud

Luckypen, that's awful news. You need to hurry up and get writing, so Happisburgh can be preserved in print for posterity.

Thanks for the replies, nenastew and amboline. I've found a couple of avenues out for it, one of which is happier than the other. That the girlfriend wouldn't find out is not an option, but amboline bringing that possibility up has made me question when she would find out. Thanks...I think ;)

Well, that's one escape route found for that conundrum. Just another five or so to look for. Doh!

Jill

Bud, I sympathise entirely. I've found myself stalled up with a couple of stories when I got the characters to a certain point and then couldn't quite work out how to get them from there to where they needed to be in the next part of the story. I would like to help you, but unfortunately both of my stories are still half finished because I never did work out how to get my characters out of their plot hole.

Luckypen - isn't Happisburgh the place where they recently found the oldest known Palaeolithic hand axe in Britain (for recently, read last year I think)? Lots of good Palaeolithic finds down that bit of coast, and it's all eroding away! I don't supose this features in your story at all, though, does it?