When You Can't Come Up With a Good Idea...

In trying to figure out where to take my story next, I realized I'd boxed myself into a corner. I trashed my original scene, which had the main character staying in Nashville after her recording contract was nullified, and ultimately joining a small-time band.

My alternate scene was exactly the same! Except she moved back home and joined a small-time band.

I simply couldn't come up with anything else interesting for her to do. I even resorted to asking AI for suggestions, which was as useless as always. It kept telling me she should "get involved in her community", whatever the hell that means. Kind of not what I'm going for.

So, finding another spare writing session, I didn't want to waste it by brainstorming. I continued on with the band idea (the second one) to see if I could make anything of it. It didn't turn out horribly. Obviously, there needed to be conflict, which ended up being more psychological conflict than anything. The MC drives to the band's first gig and sees the bar's big neon sign touting NASHVILLE RECORDING ARTIST LAYAH BRANCH! ~ then in small letters the name of the band. She had made it very clear to her cousin that if they were going to do this, it had to be just as a band. Turns out, the bar's advertising wasn't his fault, but she remains furious. Their new band had done a lot of rehearsals, and she discovered that one of the guys was a decent singer, so the plan was to feature him on a lot of the songs, while still performing some of her own. Essentially, she wanted to be a band member; not a featured act.

This works out fine for the first set; then on a break, she's confronted by the bar manager, who demands to know when HER act would be coming on. One couple has already demanded their cover charge back because she hadn't yet performed. He phrases things in a rather derogatory manner, which leads her to want to tell him off, then stomp out of the bar; but realizing how excited the rest of the band is about their debut performance, she has a change of heart, and tells him that she, in fact, is coming up next.

The band needs to scramble. They hadn't rehearsed a Layah Branch set. She really only has two original songs to her name, and she was planning to do covers during her other turns at the mic. But they feel their way through it, doing songs from her EP that by now is never going to be released, and it exceeds her wildest expectations.

Her cousin calls her the next day, ready to be blamed for the crossed wires, but instead she reveals how much she loved what they did.

No, it wasn't a wildly dramatic scene, but it cemented the fact that she couldn't see herself doing anything but performing. I think what it accomplished was setting the scene for whatever the hell is going to come next. (I still don't know.) She's addicted to that life and nothing will ever change that.

So, yes, I'm keeping it. I'm going to tweak it a bit ~ she's overly insulted by what the manager says to her, but it's not all that awful. I need to make it more so. As it is right now, she takes his statement that he's "paying for Layah Branch's services" as him comparing her to a prostitute. I like it, but readers might not read the same into it.

Sometimes, in the face of no other good options, you need to just play things out. I'm getting frustrated writing scenes, then deleting them. 

I still have no idea how I'm going to weave in the unresolved plot points. It's not going to be easy. There are two important characters whose stories have been left hanging, and seeing as how my MC is broke, they're going to need to come to her, rather than her somehow paying for a trip back to Nashville. That'll be tricky. 

I guess I'll just need to write something out and hope for the best.