Stars form when billions of tons of gas, scattered across space in the midst of an impossibly huge nebula, gradually come together through the attractive pull of gravity. Over the course of thousands of years, these gases slowly, almost imperceptibly come together, until they reach a critical mass. When that critical mass is achieved, the ball of gas falls in on itself and ignites a trememndous nuclear reaction, millions of times more powerful than all the nuclear weapons of Earth with more than a trillion times the longevity. Thus a new star is born.
Writing is not that much different; at least, not for me. My mind is like a vast nebula of thoughts, ideas, feelings, impressions, images, and memories. Gradually, almost imperceptibly, these ideas start to congregate. As I work each one out and give it shape and gravity, they slowly start to fall into each other. Some of them have more weight and fall faster, while others drift away. Eventually, these ideas reach a critical mass–and when they do, they rapidly fall into each other and come together, igniting an exciting plotline. A story is born, just screaming at me to be written.
This past week, the ideas for my next story came together and reached that critical mass…
It was a thrilling, tremendous experience that took me out of this world for about half an hour and totally immersed me in the first hundred pages or so of my next story. I know exactly what I want to happen, what I want it to feel like, what to put the characters through, what the world looks, feels, and tastes like, etc etc. It’s just awesome.
The ideas have been floating around in my head for the last six months or so, but only now have they started to come together into something worthy of a novel. How did it happen?
I think it started with the worldbuilding. I had a lot of setting ideas, but it was only as I started to review the premise of one of my old stories that my imagination really got started. Right after my mission, I wanted to write a Sci Fi novel in a universe that was compatible with LDS cosmology (ie that Christ’s millenial reign is imminent) but didn’t really pull it off very well. The other day, I was thinking “what if, just prior to Christ’s millenial reign, we send out a series of colony ships, suspended in cryo, to settle exoplanets thought to be suitable for human life? When they arrive, hundreds of thousands of years have passed and it’s impossible to figure out where the old Earth was, so it becomes a sort of paradasiacal legend in the mythology of the new civilization.”
Thus, LDS cosmology is not necessarily prominent in the story, but it is compatible. From there, I asked myself what would be the next direction in the evolution and devolution of religions, and things started to come together. The story of this universe started to unfold, and with it taking shape, I had a favorable environment for the cultivation of a story.
After that, I focused on the main character. I asked myself, who do I want him to be? I had an idea before, but it just wasn’t all that interesting. Basically, my original idea was that the main character was something of an Oliver Twist–a parentless child who makes his way out of an abusive employment situation and finds his place in the world. But honestly, that wasn’t all that compelling. I asked myself, “what kind of a character would I want to read about?” and the answer came to my mind very quickly.
I am the kind of person who wants to be a hero. Ashitaka, from Princess Mononoke, is the kind of person I strive to be like. He is honorable, heroic, self-sacrificing, and not afraid to do what is right. Another tremendous trio of role models in my life are the three Mormon boys who saved the Martin handcart company to carry them across the icy cold water of the sweetriver to the other side. For that act of charity, all three of the boys died of exposure to the cold, and the story of their sacrifice reduces me to tears every time I hear it.
Because of this deep desire within me to be a heroic person, one of the questions that I have pondered long and deeply is under what circumstances I would be willing to sacrifice my life to save the life of another person. I would be willing to sacrifice my life to save my family and friends, but what about my enemies? What about a stranger? Would I willingly sacrifice my life, like the boys at the sweetwater river, to save the life of a stranger?
That’s the kind of character that I want to write about. Not because he’s who I want to be, but because life is never that simple.
An inciting incident quickly came to mind: the hero–Tristen Farren–is in his family ship, orbiting Nova Gaia (the first planet to be colonized in the post Earth age, nearly three thousand years ago), when they are attacked and the ship starts to go down. Tristen’s mother throws him into a quick-release escape pod, and he lands in the middle of a desert, where he is taken up by a desert tribe and raised to adulthood. But he can never shake the feeling that it should have been his mother, and not him, who got away safely. He begs his adopted family to let him go to the other, more densely inhabited side of the world, to embark on a quest to find out who his family is and what happened to them.
With that spark, it was like WOOSH! Everything came together and lined up in a way that was just beautiful. A plotline ignited and burned its way across everything like a racing grassfire, and as it traced a path through all the other ideas, setting, character, and plot came together like the pieces of a puzzle, and the story just swept me away. A vast universe, an ancient world, a corrupted and divided empire…confused love, twisted romance, disillusionment and betrayed trust…the desire to do what is right, but the frustration that comes when everything is grey and you want to do two mutually exclusive things at the same time. It was so exciting!
So what am I going to do now?
Well, I’m not quite sure what to do with Genesis Earth, the other story I was supposed to be writing. I say supposed to, because…well, I haven’t been writing it. I’ve been way too busy with this study abroad and writing on my travel blog, which, BTW, I almost certainly will try to get published as a book. Besides that, my excitement for Genesis Earth has grown somewhat cold, and my ideas have never really fit together the way I wanted them to. I started that book before it had reached its critical mass, and as a result I’ve rewritten that story nearly half a dozen times from the beginning. I know I should finish what I start, keep my goals, and all that…but I think it will be better for me to put Genesis Earth on the back burner, at least for now.
I’m not going to dive right into writing this story, though. Not just yet. I’m going to try something of an experiment. From listening to the Writing Excuses podcast, I heard about this tool called Wikidpad. Basically, it allows you to write a basic wiki document, with cross links to other pages and other little tricks. I’ve been using it to write down and organize some of the more compelling ideas for this story, and I’ve decided that before I sit down and write the story, I’m going to outline it first. At least the first part, which is the part that’s screaming loudest to be written.
So that’s what I’m doing. Hopefully, by outlining things, I can create a better sense of wonder–a world that feels more real. I’m also hoping that I’ll be able to preserve some of my better ideas before they fade out too much. Also, it will be really helpful in keeping the internal conflicts and feelings straight for my characters. I’ll be able to get more things right on the first draft, so that the rewrite will be easier.
That’s the idea, at least. I think I’m more of a discovery writer, but I want to try this approach just to experiment and see what works best for me. Up until this point, I’ve always written myself into a story rather than giving birth to a fully formed work as soon as my hands leave the keyboard. But I need to experiment and see what works best for me.
Inshallah, things will work out well. I may just be in a honeymoon phase, but I know from my experience with my first novel that I can successfully see the whole thing through.
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