OK I'm feeling pressure this morning. I want to be near complete with my new novel, but I'm getting that it's not something that I can rush either. And while I am enjoying my new characters, they are still new to me. We're in the getting to know you phase. However I'm still bff's with my first ever novel that I wrote. I'm not in love with how I ended the book, but I put it down for now. I'm going to rework the ending tomorrow.
I wish that I decided to write true novels a really long time ago. My creative outlet for stress in my life was always writing various fan fiction for various shows. It was just fun, but it's how I learned to write. I didn't have to worry about knowing the characters. I knew them. I didn't have to detail the setting as I knew that too. But writing my own work with my own settings and my own characters is actually so much more enjoyable. And on a personal note, I'm much more relaxed and at peace with myself now.
And this conference is in two weeks. I hope to learn alot. My goal is to truly publish my novels and continue growing as a real author. I see my book being sold at Barnes and Nobles, and continuing this as a career path that I enjoy. My very first novel has secondary characters in a setting, so I can revisit and tell those stories. My current novel main male character is one of five brothers, so I can tell all of the stories later. I guess I love family or neighbors, and see love in a larger setting of people.
Today though is my sister's birthday party. I must get to my parents and help my sister all day. My computer stays at home, but as I said at the beginning the pressure of writing is truly pushing me right now. But as always there must be a balance.
If you are reading this, then you are connected to me already. So I wish you unconditional love in your own life!
Hello there :)
ReplyDeleteI'm also coming from a background of writing fan fiction as a springboard to get into writing my own stories. (Actually just posted an old story about a week ago.. I'm cringing here.) I don't think there's any shame in that, because you know the characters well and the challenge is manipulating them into doing new things. Whereas with fiction you have the power to develop new characters, then work them into a new or pre-existing setting (depending on what genre you're working with). Fan fic is a good exercise I think! But not the stuff that's going to wind up in B&N.
What you're doing now, world building with a story that focuses around a family that you can revisit later, isn't too much unlike those fan fiction exercises I used to do. The world is built, the characters have personalities and may even have their conflict set up before their book begins. Now all that's needed to be done is to throw a twist in, and you have yourself a second novel in a series. My 'sequel' of sorts to the story I'm writing now popped up in the middle of dialogue between a secondary character.
Always good to have strong secondary characters. You never know when you might need them! (And as Michele Hauf has said, be careful what you name your villains, because they may make a reappearance as a hero later on!)