The Wheels are (Finally) Grinding

All last year, I had this really great idea for a novel, and even worked out a significant portion of the story out in my mind, but only got up to about 10,000 words before losing momentum with it. It just kind of sat on my hard drive for a couple of months, forgotten, before I picked it up again just a couple of weeks ago.

The spark that re-lit the fire underneath this project came completely unexpectedly. A few weeks ago, I was playing Final Fantasy 6 for the second time, and I was actually thinking very seriously about adapting it to a novel. I played FFVI for the first time in the Spring of 2006, and was really impressed with it. The story, in particular, is IMO one of the best computer/video game stories ever written. My first reaction to beating the game in April 2006 was “Gosh, I’ve GOT to write down this story and tell the world about it!” I did end up writing a short FF6 fanfic that got put up on a major FF6 fansite, but I had this urge to take it further. I suppressed it for a while, though, since I probably wouldn’t be able to get it published, but the urge resurfaced this summer. Since I had some doubts and/or apathy about the other story idea, it was very easy for it to be put on the back burner while I got involved with FF6 again.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, I was preparing for an online Quark writing meeting when I got involved in this long IM chat with Aneeka, one of my friends from Quark. She’s probably one of the most serious writing group members, since she pretty much started the writing group a couple of years ago, and she’s finished a novel that she’s polishing up and trying to get published. Actually FINISHED one of those things! She might not think so, but that alone is an accomplishment!

So anyways, we got to chatting, and I asked her “so what do you think about fanfiction? Is it really worth writing?” because I was a little bit worried about the FF6 novel adaptation project. I mean, it’s not an original story, and thinking practically, it doesn’t have much of a publishable future, since Square-Enix owns the story and all the characters. She told me that it’s not necessarily wrong, it’s just more of a way of practicing your writing skills. She then started asking if I had any other projects I was working on, and the discussion ended up with her encouraging me to give my own ideas more of a chance.

The discussion actually changed a lot about how I was thinking about things. First of all, she started making me think in terms of goals, which is really significant because a lack of goals is what made the project lose momentum in the first place (after all, I still have a lot of great ideas for the story, and I know I can make them all work). Second, she got me excited about it again. I guess that was the most important thing. I just wasn’t excited anymore. But hearing about where she’s at with her story, and just getting excited about creative writing in general was enough to light the spark that was needed to get the engine moving again.

So now, my primary project (and the source for most of my submissions to Quark this year) is The Lost Colony. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, where humanity is recovering from a nearly fatal war against hostile AI (yeah, I know it’s an old Sci Fi cliche, but I have good reason to believe that cliche’s aren’t bad if you know how to use them). Three hundred years ago, just before the war, a habitable planet was discovered on the outskirts of the explored universe. The war isolated a group of refugees and colonists on this planet, and over the years they developed into a unique, independent culture. Now, the war is over, and the rest of humanity is looking for places to expand. Sayed Hamedi, who is used to being an overlooked yes-man in the coalition fleet, finds himself stranded on this planet. As one of the first people to make contact with the civilization there, he unwittingly becomes a central religious and political figure, when all he really wants is to make his way back to the world he’s always known. Along the way, he catches the eye of a tribal chieftain’s daughter, who has big dreams of adventure and escaping from the life she’s always lived. It’s a clash of civilizations, and this couple is at the center of it. Along the way, they fall in love with each other, with each other’s cultures, grow past their differences and immaturities, and realize that they need to fight desperately to keep it all from falling apart. But unknown to them both, the planet holds the secrets of an ancient past that will change the course of both civilizations forever.

Sound like something from the back cover of a Tor paperback? 😉 I guess I’m doing well then.

Here are my goals with the project:

1) write at least 500 words a day on this project (Aneeka is really grilling that into me!)

2) FINISH THE ROUGH DRAFT BY THE END OF THE ’07-’08 BYU SCHOOL YEAR

I really hope I can do it!