Okay. So I'll admit it. When I first started writing For Ever, its characters were kind of a mystery to me -- except for Wren, since I was in her head. No irony there, right?
As for Ever (and Iago, *wink* *wink*), I really didn't have much of a preconceived notion about them. However, overall I knew that I didn't want them to be "good" or "bad." Hmm, that's not completely true. At first, I sort of thought that Iago was going to be a straight-up bad guy. Then -- whoops. It didn't happen. He evolved and turned into someone I wasn't expecting.
That's the way I like my stories. You may start off thinking you know what to expect, but then the characters surprise you. I never try to predict their choices, because -- in my head -- their decisions feel very spontaneous. Which is why I totally sobbed while I was writing the end of both For Ever and Never.
For those of you loyal souls who have been following this little blog, which I've been neglecting of late, you'll know that I took a break from the third book recently to work on a side project. (Sorry, it's going under a pen name!) Well, when I "finished" writing it, something felt off. I couldn't tell what it was, but the story just didn't feel complete as it was. Feeling very restless and dissatisfied, I went back and wrote an insanely depressing epilogue, which made me bawl my eyes out. I probably won't publish it with the book, but I felt better knowing it was there. Sick, no?
Back to my original point. The third book in The Ever Series has its (second) villain so far, and I hate, hate, hate him. In a good way.
Now a word from Sever's villain ...
There will be no peace until you relent.
Hi C.J. :) I'm glad to be learning about you're writing preferences. I think in a way, reading different works from different authors helps me learn and grow into a better writer. Even though I hardly have had a chance to write at all for these four first months of the year. But I know as soon as I get time for myself I'm throwing myself into this story that doesn't want to to away. Seriously, the idea for it came up about three years ago and since then it feels like it won't let me be in peace until I start writing for it. Although I've been getting a few good ideas in the past few weeks. Anyways, thank you again for the generosity in sending both books to me. I will definitely send out a letter, hopefully soon! [:
ReplyDelete