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Breaking Writers' Block [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-10-30  

Following publication of my thriller, I was gung-ho to be already 30K into my new novel, Thorns of Picardy. It was to be three acts, told in first person present tense:

Act 1: The MC, aged 16, is caught in the 1915 Lusitania Riots, and forced to enlist. He fights in the trenches of Picardy in WW1. All his friends are killed.

Act 2: He returns, shell shocked (PTSD) and rejected by society and family, spirals into alcoholism.

Act 3: Rescued off a beach by a Queer couple who run a Punch and Judy show, he sobers up, becomes an understudy in a musical play, then famous.

My usual style of writing is to begin at the beginning and continue until finished. This time, however, I wrote five chapters of the opening then began on Act 3 and continued for a further 25K words. Until I ground to a halt.

(4 MONTHS LATER….)

I eventually realised that I was trying to write two different novels and think of them as different parts of one novel. My opening is perhaps the beginning of a prequel to the one I’m really writing, which is about the postwar recovery of a badly psychologically injured young vet in the context of the Edwardian theatre.

Having decided that the beginning of Act 3 is the real beginning of the novel, I could see that I need a lot more detail about the actual musical play that forms the backbone of the plot.

Wikipedia is about the only real source of what I was searching for. I was looking for the libretto of a 1918 musical play, but after several weeks of research I had to admit defeat. Wikipedia provided me with the basic plot, so I decided to use a typical format of the period, together with popular songs and prompts for several of the acts (eg comedy). I then fed this into Chat GPT-4 and began asking it to create versions of a typical early British 1920s musical play, with particular songs, and so forth.

After a couple of hours of feedback to the AI and refinement of the concept, I ended up with the skeleton of the libretto with story basics and song titles. (See below)

Now, I have to add the characters, as its cast. And this is before I can begin to write more of the actual story.

Act 1 - "A Country Affair"

Scene 1: The picturesque village of Bumblethorp, 1915, England.

(The village is abuzz with activity. Villagers sing and dance, celebrating the simplicity of rural life. Jack and Jennefen walk hand in hand, sharing stolen glances and tender moments.)

Jack: (singing)

♪ It's a long way to Tipperary, but our love will find its way ♪

Through meadows green and skies so blue, forever we will stay.

Jennefen: (smiling)

Oh, Jack, my heart is light, like the daisies in the dell,

But Lord Arthur's shadow lingers, casting a loveless spell.

[END]
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