"Writers write; everyone else just talks about it."
The quote above, seen on an online writing course I've been flicking through, has stuck with me for a few weeks. It's been there throughout my Imperial Infiltration edits, through drafting my current project, and now, as my notebook is being filled with yet even more ideas.
These are ideas I'm immensely excited about. You know the initial idea, it's all fresh and new and able to be explored without the messiness of first drafts corrupting it yet. So my notebook is sprawling with new things and I just wanted to share a little about these ideas.
Notebook Writing:
For me, I can't write on paper so my notebook boasts the messiest of my writing snippets. Barely does it have anything beyond a few lines that makes it into the story. For me, my notebook is for the initial idea, for random words I want to jot down for a story, and for mindmaps, which has been a new and fun thing. I've also outlined a story in my notebook (once) but I can never write proper, good sentences in there. My hand forgets to write--it only knows typing when it comes to creativity.
But my notebook has my mind in it: messy, uncultured, scribbled-out, uncoordinated. And at the beginning, that's all story ideas are; they're small things, like the slight breeze coming in through an open window that coaxes you to get up and feel something bigger than just that hint. That's what my notebook is.
Desert Ascending - (It's not the real title but just once that's been floating around in my mind). This is the second half to the Imperial Infiltration duology, the book I'm currently querying with. It will completely wrap up the Zenii sisters' story whilst throwing a whole lot of extras in there. It's the only book I've ever outlined in preparation to write. In 28 points, I've outlined this second story and I'm just waiting for the right moment to return to it. It seems like bad luck to start writing it whilst querying with it's companion.
Everything Around Us - As most know, I write fantasy stories. It's mainly because I read a lot of fantasy, it is where my passion in literature lives, but I also have a massive love for contemporary young adult books. And that's what this story in my mind is: a contemporary. But I think writing that sort of thing requires a skill to not cross the border between having the narrative witty or pretentious/asshole-y. But it's there and I've drafted out an opening paragraph for both Hazel and Nicholas, the main characters carrying the story. Surrounding them, I've fleshed out some secondary characters and a plotline. Basically, the idea is to have Hazel as this constantly wandering free spirit who finds her way into a film class, where Nicholas, having suffered an incredibly bad year due to depression and anxiety, has already been bullied by his older sister (Argument Extraordinaire) into attending. Through that, they meet three other people and they all form this weird and wonderful friendship group where each of them has their own uniqueness to bring to the story, all whilst trying to capture the beauty of life around them through this class, when they can't always directly see it. That's the theme of the story: beauty is there if you look for it; it's there even if you don't.
Laptop Writing -
Maybe some people have different views or too many deadlines to only stick to one story per time but I only have the mental ability to draft one story at a time. This one is still my magician story which I've admittedly had to halt a little during this month (explained below) but I'm so close to finishing. It's the story of Tollen Erst who is trying to fight his past, lie by lie, and cover up a terrible secret and find redemption for it in Harrow city. At the right-hand of the king, he serves as an advisor, where he decides the fate of criminals through seeing magic, expressed through a set of dice. Each dice is made up of six symbols, all representing something, either good or bad. Alongside Tollen, the story has incredibly strong female characters (a gang of them) who basically own the story, especially Dhae Chalon, an artist with a touch of magic in her and who the citizens of Harrow say walked right from the throne of Hell itself. So that's proving fun and dark and strange to write. It's a standalone that I'm planning companion novellas for because there's so much that happens to different characters in different places before the story starts that I want to explore.
At the start of July, I began my first CampNaNoWriMo project, which is a fantasy, young adult Alice in Wonderland retelling. It was in planning for a few weeks before I started typing it down. So far, I'm making decent progress with it. Not yet enough but all projects have different progression times!
Mad Rebellion - I watched a stage performance of Wonderland and it was incredible and inspired me to think beyond the classic box of Alice in Wonderland. It's been playing on my mind and my notebook now bears the start of an outline (I'm outlining as much as I can do as I'm still learning how so I then write up to where I point out and then go back). It's a strange story of a reluctant Red Queen who never asked for her throne, an Alice who loves a little too much, twins that reflect other personalities and a Hatter who brings newer madness to Wondering Land. It has wonderfully crazy themes and my Pinterest board is so inspiring for it.
Even though I recently made a Where I'm At post, this one just says about the things my mind is constantly at work with and forming. If anyone wants to know more, find me on Twitter here, where I've posted aesthetics and progress updates, or on Pinterest to see visuals of the things I'm working on here!
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