Writing Corner: Every Chapter A New Beast

Writing corner is the little corner of my blog where I talk about writing.  If you're interested in the rest of the corner, click here.

Currently I've been working on The Queen's Ransom (or TQR) which I've talked about before.  Normally when I sit down to write I have an idea of what's going to happen and if something huge changes in my head I just start over because when it's something that changes the "roots" of the story I have a hard time continuing writing.

Well, that's a bit different this time around and I don't actually know why.  I began with a really basic plot and a really basic outline but knew where I wanted to go with the story.  While writing each chapter though, I tend to stumble upon an idea that betters the story and absolutely changes the "roots" of it.  But, instead of going back and starting over, I just roll with it and let it play out as it's playing out just with these new changes.

For example, at the end of the first chapter I realized that one of the two MCs had to have a different motivation.  His motivation is a major plot point in the story (understandably) and changes a lot of what his character means.  As I go through, too, I keep streamlining why he does what he does and his character has done a near 180 since he was first spawned into my head.

The quest itself- the driving force of the whole novel- has changed quite a bit as well.  It went from being a rather solitary thing to being something where a whole bunch of outsiders can take part of.  This was the hardest change to enact because I will have to rewrite most of the first chapter and the prologue but it's also the best change for the story so far.

Smaller things have changed as well.  Things I didn't realize I was missing or were weak are now there and are strong.

Every chapter is a new beast when I sit down to write it because right now it feels like each chapter belongs to a different story.  I'm looking forward to editing it when it's done because then I get to straighten all the lines out and finally wrangle it into one definitive story.