I had a book idea about a year or two ago, but I was so busy with Pioneered that I didn’t start writing it. I’ve kept thinking about it, though, and I had a lot of time to develop it. Now that I’m finished writing Pioneered, I have some time to get started on it. 

I went over to one of my friends’ houses and she helped me plan. She drew a picture of my character for me, since she can draw and I can’t. I also have a really hard time visualizing characters- I don’t really see a movie in my head when I read or write like some people do. It’s a little different for me- it’s blurry, like I’m seeing everything occur underwater, but I understand it perfectly. Reading is more about feelings to me- what the character feels like, in the way that you know the meaning of a word without really being able to define it. Her drawing helped me visualize my character a bit. 

I also lacked a plot. When I have ideas, I usually just get premise, and that’s it. I have no idea what the actual story is going to be. In a lot of my books, I just kind of went along with it and figured out the plot along the way. It’s a bit more like real life that way- but it doesn’t have the structural component of a story, and as I’ve been querying for Colonized I’ve found that a bit difficult. So for this new idea, I was determined to have a plot in mind before I started writing, and talking to my friend helped me figure that out. She gave me a lot of ideas that I know I’m going to end up using, and she helped me solidify my pre-existing ideas. My story still has the same premise it did before, but the ideas have changed a bit, and I have a plot in mind. 

Writing friends are a must-have.

The problem, though, was actually starting the book. I should have started right when I got home from my friend’s house- right when I was excited about all these new ideas. But I had a bunch of exams coming up, so I postponed it for a few weeks.

Last night, I decided to start.

I always forget how strange it is to start a new book. There’s so much possibility on that blank page, but it’s kind of threatening in that way. You can literally write anything.

And what I realized while I wrote the first five paragraph of my story was that I don’t know my character yet. I know her story- I know what her life’s going to look like for the next 70,000 words. I know where she’s from and where she’s going. I know all the trouble she’s going to face, and I know the revelations she’s going to have along the way. I know her family members and her history and her fourth grade best friend, but I don’t know her. 

The voice was the strange part. I started writing, and she sounded completely different than any character I’d written before. I guess I just wasn’t expecting that, and it surprised me. I don’t consciously control my writing style- I just write. So it was weird to find myself writing in this character’s voice, and to realize that I don’t know what she sounds like. I don’t know how she describes things yet. I know her future and her past, but I don’t know her mind. 

I think there’s something amazing and so fun in the fact that the author gets to discover their character along the way, just as the reader does.