Welcome to Week 2 of your novel writing adventure! If you’re like us, you had lots of writing energy and excitement during Week 1. Your characters had plenty to say and places to go, you introduced important details of your setting and plot, and ideas were popping into your head like popcorn. But then Week 2 arrived.
Week 2 can bring what we call the Week 2 Blues: the excitement that kept you writing last week has faded, the words aren’t flowing so easily from your fingertips to the keyboard, and your characters are starting to bore you. How can you turn those blues into the music of your story being written?
One suggestion is to drop a bag of conflict smack dab in the middle of a character’s life. Sure, you’ve got the main conflicts planned for your novel, but to keep readers interested (and to keep you from getting bored), your characters will need to encounter additional conflicts throughout your story. A fun way to do that is to make your character a fish out of water.
But wait—aren’t fish out of water dying? Are you saying I need to kill my characters?
No, please don’t! That fish-out-of-water metaphor refers to a character being put in a place that is really unfamiliar for them, which brings additional conflicts for them to overcome.
Maybe it’s a social setting that has different expectations from what they are used to, like Buddy in Elf.
Maybe it’s an age difference where someone younger is expected to act much older, like Josh Baskin in Big.
Maybe it’s a workplace setting where they have to pretend they know how to do the job, like Dewey Finn in School of Rock.
Maybe it’s a time travel situation and your character has to figure out how to live in a different time period, like Marty McFly in Back to the Future.
Or maybe it’s a life-or-death adventure that takes them away from the safety and security of their home, like Frodo in Lord of the Rings.
Whatever fish-out-of-water situation that you give your character, think about all the ways it will cause your character to make mistakes, get embarrassed and need help. Those little conflicts will make your story more interesting and might even generate new ideas for your plot.
Also consider how your character might be successful in that strange setting. Dewey Finn didn’t know anything about how to teach, but he did know a lot about music. That knowledge and his rebellious personality made him successful in a classroom.
Josh Baskin had never worked in an office, but he had played with a lot of toys. That experience and his youthful exuberance made him successful as a grown-up working for a toy company.
How can you move your characters out of their comfort zone and into the unfamiliar? Tackle the Week 2 Blues with a fish out of water who just keeps swimming!