What Don't You Know? by Claire Fayers

This is another writing/piano crossover post.

In my weekly piano lesson last week, I was trying to explain why I was having trouble with a particular piece when my teacher interrupted. 

"Usually, when you're stuck, it's because there's something you don't know," he said. "What don't you know here?"

Essentially, I didn't know which fingers had to go on which notes, but in a mini lightbulb-going-off moment, I realised this could apply to far more things than just music.

My plot has stuck? What don't I know? What do I need to find out in order to fix it?

Sometimes it's a problem with the characters. What don't I know about them, their histories, their likes and dislikes? Maybe I need to spend some time with a notebook, asking my characters questions. When I get stuck I often find it's my villain's motivation which is lacking. I have a habit of starting to write without having a clear idea of who the villain is or what they're doing (which is fine as long as I remember to work it out before I do the second draft.)

Sometimes it's the setting. For someone who writes mainly fantasy, I do surprisingly little world-building up front. I start with the starting location and fill in my mental map of the world as my characters travel. It avoids vast info-dumps early on, but it also means I can get stuck because I haven't properly worked things out. What don't I know about this particular location? What are the obstacles? What are the people like here? How does this location link to the wider world of the book? 

Sometimes it's a scene that causes me to stumble. I might have a great idea for a set piece - a tense conversation, a fight, an explosion or a dramatic encounter with a dragon - but I haven't thought through the implications. I write the scene and then I stop, wondering what should happen next. So, go back. What happened exactly? Who was involved and what were they trying to achieve? Was that scene part of some bigger plan that I need to work out?

Donald Rumsfeld famously said: 

"There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know. And... it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones."

What don't I know?

Claire Fayers

www.clairefayers.com