Morphing Like X-Men

by Lucy Marsden

I try. God knows, I try.

I plot and I plan and I do Goal Motivation and Conflict outlines for them, but are my characters grateful? They are not. Currently, they’re ignoring all the lovely thematic elements I’ve laid out for them, and are morphing like X-Men.

I guess we just can’t have nice things.

Eleven thousand words into this manuscript, it’s looking more like a patchwork quilt than any kind of cohesive narrative, and the people currently in a lip-lock with each other are disdaining any knowledge of the characters who showed up in their first scenes. It’s gotten to the point that I’m grateful to my hero for shifting from the charming con-man I’d originally envisioned, into an irascible Beast—at least I know what he wants and why. But that heroine of mine has regenerated more often than a Time Lord, and if she could find a minute to drop me a post card with the address of her current head-space, I surely would appreciate it.

How is this possible? How is it possible to figure out a forgery plot so good that it synchronistically shows up on an episode of LEVERAGE (Love. That. Show.)—and still be floundering with my heroine? Why won’t that wench just gel, already?

If you, or anyone you know (or anyone you’ve ever even been “Friended” by on Facebook), would like to stop by with a box of tissues, or a stiff drink and an explanation, that would be delightful. Until then, I'm choosing to believe that I am in the process of discovering these characters, and that all will be revealed in the fullness of time.

Please, please, please...

Lucy Marsden is a romance writer living in New England. When she’s not backstage at a magic show or crashing a physics picnic, she can be found knee-deep in the occult collection of some old library, or arguing hotly about Story.