I've got a bunch of characters I've been writing since I was about 15, and I'm 35 now. So I've known them for more than half my life. I guess it would sound strange to most people (but not to many of you) to say that I know these characters very very well, and they are as real and as close to me as any real person could be.
I've been writing them in some story or another of a lot of that time, but I haven't touched them for many years. I've long wanted to correct that though, because the last story I did with them had the seeds of something pretty good. I mean, when I wrote it, I thought it was great, but that was back in 2004, and despite trying my hand at another story with them since then, it all fell flat.
But lately, I've wanted to get back to them. Not too long ago, I did a novelization of an episode of Star Trek (not official, purely for fun - it is "The Best of Both Worlds", widely considered one of the best episodes, and I did it because they never made an official novelization of it), and that seriously got me hooked on the writing bug again. And I did a bit of work on some other ideas (a sci fi series and a fantasy series), but both of these need more planning, and I found it was quite difficult to make some headway on them.
So I decided to go back to my original characters. I went over what I had in the 2004 version, looked at the ideas that worked and the ideas that didn't, and sorted out what I wanted to keep. The over all story is the same - a young woman moving with her mother to a new town where she falls in love - but many of the things have changed too.
But I can't post any of it yet (I need 50 posts and I'm not even halfway there yet), but I've been making some good progress. And I thought that keeping a little record of how I go here and sharing my thoughts about the story as I write it will help keep me focused.
So, at the moment, I'm at 41,862 words. I try to do some work on it every day. Some days, I get quite a bit of writing done, maybe two thousand words. I like those days. Other days, the words don't want to flow as easily, but I work on the planning stuff. I write my notes on my tablet (I use an app called Papyrus which is great! https://play.google.com/store/search?q=papyrus&hl=en ), including chapter outlines and little snippets of things I write in a script format. And I've got stuff about the school where the characters go, the layout, the houses, the teachers.
At the moment, I'm working on my main character's first kiss. it's a bit difficult to write - she knows she's not going to be staying for very long, only about two years, and she's used to avoiding friendships because it hurts her too much when she has to leave them. So falling in love is the last thing she wants. And when she has her kiss, this pain comes back to her mind, and it ruins the moment. (Of course, she's way too stubborn and needs to learn to take life as it comes. Instead, she worries about the future so much she can't enjoy the present for what it is.)
I've been writing them in some story or another of a lot of that time, but I haven't touched them for many years. I've long wanted to correct that though, because the last story I did with them had the seeds of something pretty good. I mean, when I wrote it, I thought it was great, but that was back in 2004, and despite trying my hand at another story with them since then, it all fell flat.
But lately, I've wanted to get back to them. Not too long ago, I did a novelization of an episode of Star Trek (not official, purely for fun - it is "The Best of Both Worlds", widely considered one of the best episodes, and I did it because they never made an official novelization of it), and that seriously got me hooked on the writing bug again. And I did a bit of work on some other ideas (a sci fi series and a fantasy series), but both of these need more planning, and I found it was quite difficult to make some headway on them.
So I decided to go back to my original characters. I went over what I had in the 2004 version, looked at the ideas that worked and the ideas that didn't, and sorted out what I wanted to keep. The over all story is the same - a young woman moving with her mother to a new town where she falls in love - but many of the things have changed too.
But I can't post any of it yet (I need 50 posts and I'm not even halfway there yet), but I've been making some good progress. And I thought that keeping a little record of how I go here and sharing my thoughts about the story as I write it will help keep me focused.
So, at the moment, I'm at 41,862 words. I try to do some work on it every day. Some days, I get quite a bit of writing done, maybe two thousand words. I like those days. Other days, the words don't want to flow as easily, but I work on the planning stuff. I write my notes on my tablet (I use an app called Papyrus which is great! https://play.google.com/store/search?q=papyrus&hl=en ), including chapter outlines and little snippets of things I write in a script format. And I've got stuff about the school where the characters go, the layout, the houses, the teachers.
At the moment, I'm working on my main character's first kiss. it's a bit difficult to write - she knows she's not going to be staying for very long, only about two years, and she's used to avoiding friendships because it hurts her too much when she has to leave them. So falling in love is the last thing she wants. And when she has her kiss, this pain comes back to her mind, and it ruins the moment. (Of course, she's way too stubborn and needs to learn to take life as it comes. Instead, she worries about the future so much she can't enjoy the present for what it is.)
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