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Golly gosh, I’ve struggled
writing the sequel to Angelguard. The basic story of Angelguard fell out of me.
I was a complete novice (well, I still am really) but the story just kept
coming. I’d turn up to the blank page and out it would come.
Nine months later it was done.
The first draft. Not to be read by any one, oh, except, Fiona my wife who egged
me on and kept giving me new ideas and lots of names for my supernatural
beings.
Many years later it was
finally published. Even though there had been many many changes to that first
draft the essence of the original story of that first draft remained.
Angelguard was a very
plot-driven story with a relatively simple premise focused on how the
supernatural interacts with the natural world and the significance of prayer in
dealing with the darkness.
Second time around I’ve found
to be a completely different experience. Where Angelguard was dealing with the
supernatural at the “macro-level” I wanted to move to the micro for the sequel.
What role do angels and demons play in the daily life of individuals in, for
example, their thought life?
Plotter vs Pantser
As you will have gathered
Angelguard was definitely written by the seat of my pants. I started with two
words (which actually survived the many re-writes and edits) and a general idea
about involving angels and demons in it.
But I figured plotting would
help shorten the production process. Sure, there’s more work up front, but the
actual writing should take less time if you do a reasonably detailed outline.
Well that's what all the books on plotting told me.
I started out with an outline
for a story that I thought I loved. Tried a couple of “outlining” methods that
seemed to work okay and then started to draft the story.
But the story just wouldn’t
come out.
So I shifted gears and worked
on another angle, and then another, still grappling with outlining while
struggling to bring the essence of the story (what I mentioned above) into it.
I gave up outlining and went
back to pantsing. I handed the story back to my characters to see what they’d
come up with. Slowly but surely, the story began to get legs and eventually it
came out.
Hooray!
Wrestling with Shadows
During the course of the last
couple of years of struggling with the story I was also grappling within
myself. Sorting through my own mess, my light and dark.
Having completed the first
draft early in the year I was able to reflect a little on the process. What
become apparent was I needed to go through my own season of discovery about
myself to be able to write the story.
I recently read an article
Francine Rivers wrote in a recent Christianity Today where she talked through
how most of her novels came out of her “questions of faith.”
“But questions of faith kept
rising up and with them, characters, to play out various points of view.”
Similarly, I’ve started doing
a course Ted Dekker has created (”The Creative Way”). One of the
opening comments he makes about his own journey is similar to Francine’s:
“All of my novels began with
a question I was wrestling with. A doubt or struggle in my life that I wanted
to explore in the context of story.”
I recall other authors
sharing similar things and I believe that’s why the latest story is often the
hardest one even if you’ve written fifty of them. Because you don’t know what
you’re going to learn about yourself when you’re writing it.
We write stories to discover
the truth. And in so doing we discover more about the Lord and ourselves.
Yes, the sequel has always
had the title, Wrestling with Shadows. To write it, I’ve discovered I needed to
do just that myself so I could take my characters through their own
transformation.
Did I envisage it being such
a struggle when I set out? Never. Sure, I knew getting the story would be
challenging enough but I had no inkling the personal battle would be so strong.
If you’re presently
struggling with your story be gentle with yourself. Spend more time with the
Lord and His Word. Simply hang out and talk to Him not just about the novel but
the stuff inside you. He’ll help you sift through it (and others may help as
well) and in so doing free you to take your characters on an even better
journey in the story.
Ian Acheson is an author
and strategy consultant based in Sydney. Ian's first novel of
speculative fiction, Angelguard, is now available in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. Angelguard was recognised with the 2014 Selah Award for Best Speculative Fiction. You can
find more about Angelguard at Ian's website, on his author Facebook page and Twitter
