Tuesday, November 30, 2021
Starting a new chapter, literally
You’d think that after spending over a decade trying to finish one novel, I’d be anxious to get it edited and published.
And you wouldn’t be wrong.
I am.
It’s just that now that’s its done, I’ve become more intrigued with the idea of finding out what happed to my characters after the story ended then revisiting events I’ve already written about.
When I grew up, most sequels to stories I loved always seemed to begin with the characters “reset” back to a state near to where we first met them. What they’d been through didn’t seem to change them much at all, so they were ready and willing to take on the next great threat or go out on a new set of adventures.
This was especially true of genre TV shows of the time -- “Star Trek,” the original “Battlestar Galactica” and classic “Doctor Who” as well as films featuring characters like Indiana Jones, James Bond or any comic book character.
Sure, sometimes the writers would pay lip service to the things characters went through in previous stories, but more often than not, it was only used as a plot device to propel the characters into the new story, then all but forgotten.
The problem is things don’t work that way in real life. People just don’t “move on” or reset themselves after experiencing life-threatening events. Just ask any military veteran or first-responder who’ve been through a harrowing event.
It changes them, whether they’ll admit it or not, and while my characters may not be real people to you, they are to me. I figured they’d be suffering some sort of PTSD, and what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t help them through it? So, for the last three months, I’ve been taking them to therapy, helping them explore what they must be feeling and trying to help them figure out how to live with what they’ve gone through.
I have no idea where this is going. I just have a couple of vague ideas banging around in my head, and a handful of characters I really enjoy spending time with. Like my first story, I’m just feeling my way through this, with no set plot in mind. I figure I’ll just keep writing and rewriting scenes until hopefully a coherent story emerges.
And if I get stuck -- which I know I inevitably will -- I can always go back to edit the first story until new inspiration hits.
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