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My novel is not moving forward

SchumiSchumi
edited October 2006 in - Writing Problems

Comments

  • SchumiSchumi
    I'm having problems with the novel I am writing. The story has become static. My main problem is with the narrative. It doesn't sound like the 15 year-old-boy it is meant to represent. I'm writing in first person present and past tense (the past tense is for events that happened some time ago that are highly relevant to the story). Anyway, from what I have written so far, it sounds too structured, and by that, I mean the way my character shows the story sounds like he is writing an English essay for school. It lacks the raw emotion I am looking for.

    However, I am pleased with the dialogue I have. I feel so much more comfortable writing it, as I know my characters well and what they would and wouldn't say. I've spoken on here before about writing the dialogue to a story first. Earlier this week, I had a go, and I'm getting mixed results. In between the speech, I am putting bits of narrative in that state where the characters are, what they are doing, and certain actions they show like smiling etc. The one thing it lacks of course is the internal thoughts of my main character, and this is where I feel the problem of writing the dialogue first comes in.

    Say, for example, if you had 3 or 4 pages of near constant dialogue, and then the character went off in a rage, leading to several pages of showing his deepest, innermost thoughts. When the next lot of dialogue came in, would the results of his thoughts show through in the speech? I think they probably would, and by writing the dialogue first, this can't be reflected.

    The narrative to my story is arguably more vital than the dialogue. Considering it is coming from the character himself, I suppose it is an extension of his own dialogue somewhat? But I don't feel confident to press on with the narrative, as I am struggling to build up any real emotion throughout it. My feeling now is that the story can only start to move forward if I continue the root of writing the dialogue first, with narrative pointers running throughout. I'm aware of the downsides, but for the sake of keeping the story moving, I don't think I have much choice.

    I would be grateful for any advice you may have. Thanks.
  • SchumiSchumi
    Apologies, I've posted this in the wrong forum. It was meant to go into writers problems. I'll repost it so this one can be deleted.
  • scribescribe
    Hi Schumi,
    How about taking one of those passages that you feel lacks emotion and rewrite in the third person. That may give you the emotion you need. It should also tell you if you have perhaps chosen the wrong point of view to tell the story.
    Good luck with it.
  • KangarooKangaroo
    Hi Schumi, do you know any 15 year old boys that you could talk to? Sons of friends, cousins? Goodluck!
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