Morgan and I were both very into books and writing. I still am. I am pretty sure that she still is as well. When we were in 8th grade we decided that we wanted to write something together. We were also very silly girls when we were together. We had these imaginary "boyfriends" that we referred to constantly in our daily conversations. These characters, Alex and Aaron, became the star players in a story that was the first real quality thing I wrote (I know parts of it were pretty horrible, Morgan, but you have to admit that our overall plot line (which would have created a trilogy, had we finished it) as well as our characters were pretty great.) I thought the story was pretty original. It wasn't the most original thing I have ever written, but it was pretty good.
Ever since Morgan and I stopped writing the story in 9th grade (we had somewhere between 50 and 70 pages) I have wanted to finish it. Eventually that want changed. I now want simply to use the main idea behind it. It needs new characters (our main characters were pretty much unrealistic) and I think some of the plot definitely needs to be reworked, but I like the idea that we started. Throughout the years, I have tried and tried to write a story similar to it and yet better. Thus far, I have not succeeded.
I feel that it is time to change that.
My family and I went to Moab last week over spring break. We were camping by Slick Rock trail and there was this rock just behind the tent that my sisters and I shared that was absolutely perfect for sitting and contemplating the universe. One evening I came back to camp after a day of 4 wheeling I sat on that rock. As I sat there this universe came to present itself to me. Along with it came a cast of characters and their cultures. It was not as if I was merely thinking them up. I sat on that rock and looked out toward the setting sun on the horizon and these things just came to me of their own accord. I had not been thinking about writing a novel at the time. It has always been a dream of mine, but I recently decided that I was going about it for the wrong reasons, I wanted to have finished the act. I no longer wanted to create a novel for the simple act of telling the story I had to tell. I had told myself that if I was ever going to write the novel in my head I would have to wait for it to present itself to me. I could not keep hunting for it as I had been.
So now I have it. I have the characters and I have the setting. I know parts of the story, but not all of it. As I continue to write the lives of my characters the rest of it will come to me as this part has so far. I have not ever written a story by this method. I believe that is why the only stories that I have ever finished in the past were short ones. I am going to finish this one.
One last thing before I go: This is my 100th blog post! I'm kinda disappointed that it took me 3 years to get to 100, but it is still awesome!
So, happy 1ooth blog!
