The Right Idea for the Wrong Book

October 13, 2021
JillKemerer
For Writers
1 Comment

Last week I was coming up with plot ideas, and the perfect one came to me. I was so excited! The book I’m plotting is pretty murky at this point, so my soul did a little sideline cheer when the idea hit. Since this is a story toward the end of a series, I had to go back through my notes for the other books to make sure it would work.

Guess what? It didn’t.

I was bummed. Like, literally, heavy sighing and maybe an eye-roll occurred. But then I remembered that the final book of the series had a really weak area I hadn’t addressed.

The perfect plot idea that wouldn’t work for the current book? Perfect for the final one! Yay!!

Of course that meant I still needed to figure out the current story, but I wasn’t upset about it. In fact, I headed to the park and took a long walk to allow my brain the time and space it needs to work on the problem. While I didn’t get the exact solution on the walk, the questions rolling around in my mind led me to the breakthrough the next day.

For me, figuring out plot holes or plots in general, takes time, many questions, a lot of thinking, and sometimes reviewing the rest of the series. In this case, a YouTube video proved a good starting point, too.

Have you ever gotten the perfect plot idea and realized it was for the wrong book?

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JillKemerer

Jill Kemerer is a Publishers Weekly bestselling author of heartwarming, emotional, small-town romance novels often featuring cowboys. She hopes to encourage readers through her books the way so many books have encouraged her. Jill's essentials include coffee, caramels, a stack of books, her mini-doxie, and long walks outdoors. She resides in Ohio with her husband and two almost-grown children. For more information, visit her website, jillkemerer.com.

Comments (1)

Andrea Cox says:

October 13, 2021 at 12:11 pm

I don’t think I have yet, actually, and that surprises me. My mind whirls at all hours, and I’m constantly coming up with ideas, but they usually come with either a story in mind that it works for or with a feeling that it’s just for my “random ideas” file to peruse when I’m stuck. I love that you got an idea for the final book! I once got an idea for a major scene for a book’s sequel while typing up a scene in the first book. I wasn’t even thinking about plot points at that point; it was stream-of-conscience writing. Well, something — and I don’t remember what — in that draft I was typing sparked up an idea for what could happen to a particular character in the next book. I didn’t even know until that moment that THAT character would be the lead in book two. It was a cool moment, and I had to take a second to enjoy it and wrap my mind around it. Then, of course, I jotted notes for the sequel before returning to work on the draft in progress. I think that’s as close as I’ve come to getting the right idea for the wrong book, but I wasn’t even intentionally brainstorming at the time.

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