About My Fiction Writing

I stumbled upon fantasy quite literally in a local bookstore where books-to-be shelved stood in stacks on the floor. I completely judged the book by its cover, and my dad bought it for me.

I've been addicted ever since.

But pretty soon I realized that the characters in my beloved books weren't doing what I thought they should. I spent so much time postulating the potential trajectory of plotlines that I became quite opinionated about the stories.

Not that I, at 11, had much informed understanding of story. Driven, I plopped down in my bedroom with drawing pad and pencil and created a map. In my created world the characters would do what I thought they should!

Or so I thought.

Whatever the case may be, I invented the world of Don-Yin, which has a deep and diverse history. There are positives to building a world so well, and there are negatives. The positive is that I have the rules down so well that "the rules" are one of the few thing the characters don't argue about.

The negative is that with such a deep history it takes a lot of working and reworking to produce something that doesn't confuse a reader. I have learned that I need to be more attached to my characters than my story arc, because sometimes if I want to be true to the characters and the world, but craft a good story, I need to completely re-envision the story. Starting over also means surrendering more control to characters.

So I am working on Silver Mask, the first Don-Yin novel that *will* see the light of day.