Tentative Excitement about Fantasy Book 3
Why tentative excitement? I’m so glad you asked!
You see, I think this is the seventh time I’ve started this book. At least. Draft 1 got to about 16k words before I puttered out. Something felt…off. The characters weren’t clicking for me. Especially my FMC. She was too sad and broken and not for good enough reasons, imo. (I’m allowed to judge her because she’s my creation, okay??).
I stuck with it though because the Plot (big P, not little p) is awesome (again, in my humble opinion).
So I started again. And again. And again. I got Evie right. I got her mom right. I got Damien right. And finally, I think I got the setting right.
What started as a professor rivals-to-lovers urban fantasy at a witch academy (love the idea!) is now a small-town romance set on a secondary world with no school children. Because I really don’t like urban fantasy. And I don’t gravitate toward dark academia. So since I don’t read those things, I don’t think I should write those things either.
Don’t get me wrong. There are some urban fantasies I love. There are some dark academias I love. The Magicians, for example, hits both. Except even then, my favorite parts of those books and show are when they’re in Fillory away from school. So while I love the idea of setting sweet romances in the Virginia mountains with hints of magic, I don’t think I’m there yet. Because right now, that’s not as fun for me. And I want writing to be fun.
So now we have a secondary world in more modern times than I’m used to (phones and cars, oh my!). Set in the later gas-lamp years. I’m loving it!
But now we come to our second issue. I started writing this book not as a political statement. The more I outline it, the more I realize my brain is dumping A LOT of feelings into this book, more than I put into my previous ones. With my first two, I put a lot of myself. A lot of my own personal things I needed to work through. This book is my feelings on the world. On what’s happening in the US today. It’s funny because it really didn’t start that way. There were always witch Hunters that were scooping people off the streets. But now it feels like I’m making a political statement. And in many ways, I am. So even though the intent wasn’t originally there, it certainly is now, and I think it makes the story that much more powerful. But because it’s real, it makes it harder to write. It’s not an escape from the horrors. Instead it’s pulling them to the surface and finding a way through.
Sometimes when I outline a book, the theme is there from the start. The Poisoner and the Mage is about being enough. The Battle of D’Burgeon is about the power and bonds of chosen family. This one is about community and keeping each other safe.
So, friends reading this, remember the importance of community in difficult times. Remember that when the world feels bleak and it feels impossible to change the world, you’re right. You can’t change the world as a whole and if we try, it will feel too insurmountable. That’s the point of flooding our feeds with horrible things. It’s supposed to feel overwhelming. So what can we do? We start with our microcommunity. Those small, everyday actions are what make the difference in the world.
**I had finished this blog post and then re-read the title. I never got to the point of it! Why am I tentatively excited? Aside from starting over many times, I’m only 1,400 words into this new draft. I’ve been here so many times before. But this is the first time it feels right. Plus, I’m only halfway through the new outline. Luckily there’s a lot I can take from the previous outline (the Plot and a few plots), so even though I’m not there yet, I know what the culmination of the story will be and a few of the steps along the way. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little scarred from the number of times I’ve already gotten to this point. Time will tell.
Once again, if you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading my stream-of-consciousness rant. I promise my books are more thought out than this. This type of writing is fun because I don’t have to pretend to be perfect or polished. I can just be me. Thank you for giving me that opportunity.
Cheers,
Lindsey