Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Unearthing a Trilogy

Well on the plus side, my editing went really well this weekend. At least I thought it went well until I just realized I only edited two more chapters. Make that three chapters, which equals a week’s worth of posting on Protagonize. So I take that back. I editing did go well this weekend.

Speaking of my current project, Phoenix Triumphant, have I given you direct links yet? Ah, I see two weeks ago I gave on to it. But that’s the third book in a trilogy. Yes, I said trilogy. A story that was just warm fuzzy romance fantasy blossomed into a bit more the moment I started posting it to Protagonize. Why?

Well that’s the funny thing about stories. When you start delving more deeply into the world, you begin to find things you had no idea was there. I like Stephen King’s analogy in his book “On Writing” (which came highly recommended and I add my own high recommendation to it). He said something along the lines of stories are like dinosaur bones and writers are the archeologists who dig them up carefully to expose the full skeleton.

Sarah & Jason, the original title of the story that blossomed into The Phoenixes of Vervell Trilogy, started out, as I said above, as romance. It was your basic two imaginary friend turn out to be real and somehow the boundary that’s kept them apart is shattered/crossed by their love for each other and they get married (after somehow convincing his family it’s okay) and live happily ever after.

Bleck, huh? Okay I admit, writing sappy romance is my guilty pleasure. Even more so if I bring it back to high school. Thankfully, when I started editing the original story in order to post it on Protagonize, things started coming out a little differently. Now Sarah’s Phoenix could still use a lot of work, especially after the underlying plot came out and bit me in Phoenix Rising, but it ends very differently from the original Sarah & Jason, all five ways. Yes, I have a habit of taking alternate paths. Heck, I have a habit of taking a theme (see end of the paragraph above) and writing five different stories using it. *grin*

So anyway, back to Vervell. I think the most fun part of this journey has been the discovery process. Like that dinosaur Stephen King mentions, I’ve been carefully excavating the culture and history of Vervell. I’ve discovered what their clothing looks like (for the most part), their take on religion, and that their Gods really do exist. The Great-Grand Pairents (aka the gods) apparently also have a sense of humor, but they are claiming their names are NOT Adam and Eve, though some of their priest/priestess pairs have come from the Christian Bible (like Mary and Joseph). And I can’t forget the few Knights and wives whose names are connected to King Arthur’s Knights of the Round table...

What? I’m telling you the Gods named them, not me. I mean, who am I to argue with the Gods of Vervell, Azure and the Areni Plains. I’m just the archeologist, I mean author.

*giggles and grins*
:} Elorithryn
I mean Cathryn Leigh
He, he! {:

2 comments:

  1. Bahaha, I just read this most and almost all of us started laffing back here .... wow, that makes me sound really schizophrenic doesn't it? xD

    ReplyDelete
  2. No, you sound like an author... Wiat, that was in one of those Blogs, I think on MWi - One of his Summer Book Club authors stated she writs so she wouldn't be institutionalize for having schizophrenia. Something along those lines. *grin*

    You were probably in france that week.

    Did you see any Cheese eating surrender monkies? Or Frogs? *sniggles*

    :} Cathryn Leigh

    ReplyDelete