Writing the ancient world of my books has been an interesting dilemma.
The other day I was attempting to hammer away at a chunk of ZP, all of which was literally the beginning of the world of Tilion, and I struggled to get the images in my head to coherently make their way to the page. After two hours to meagerly writing and coming up with nothing I was proud of, I sat back and stared at my computer screen. Arms crossed over my chest, I shook my head as I read what I had written. How could I literally shove five books out of my head in one year with perfect clarity and relative success as to continuity, but I couldn't finish one story about character's histories or about the ancient world of Tilion?
Then it hit me.
Remember, Susan, you spent five years planning out the End Game thread. (That's me talking to myself, in case you didn't catch it.) Five years. That isn't a trivial thing. In taking that much time to think (a lot of which was random car rides between school and home), I had figured out most of the story line and the major plot points. Sure, million of minute details still needed to be fleshed out, but on the whole, I was ready to go whenever my stubbornness was overcome.
Now that all of that is out of the way and I'm beginning to delve into histories (and possibly futures?) of my characters, no wonder it's taking longer. I haven't spent much time thinking.
Thinking is crucial for me when it comes to story creation. This past weekend, I got to visit a friend in Upstate New York. That five and a half hour trip was more beneficial than I could have imagined. Sitting in a car leaves me with little to do but think and imagine and dream. I follow random tendrils of ideas and explore avenues. I imagine "movie trailers" of each story. It sounds absurd, but that helps me get key images down in my mind. Sometimes I'll put a song on repeat if a specific image comes to mind, simply so it can be solidified in my head.
So I thought. A lot. I delved into characters I haven't fully explored before and began to pull at their nitty-gritty details. That's hard to do sometimes, especially when the character in question's history holds something you don't expect. By the time I got home, I was excited and ready to tackle the next story in the histories. Eventually though, I really would like to finish Arthur. That book being half done really kind of bothers me.
In other news, I've got another stand-alone story idea. This is a new concept for me. So I've written the basic idea down and maybe, when I'm ready to create a new world, I'll explore that avenue. I'm fairly certain that that desire isn't going to pop up any time soon. I've got enough to explore for the time being.
I'm exhausted, but that's what coffee's for.
Adventure well everyone! It's warm(ish) in PA right now, so I'm gonna take advantage of it and shoot some arrows into targets.
Currently Writing: Zero Point One
Currently Listening to: "Language" by Porter Robinson
P.S. - For the sake of Camp Nano, I've decided to chop ZP into four(?) books, each containing three character histories. Eventually, I'll shove them all together and it'll be a massive book of epic proportions that no one but myself and my crazy friends will want to read.
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