...Will they come?
Originally Published March 28, 2020 - Melanite Entertainment
This is a companion post to Making Melanite's Episode 8.*
If you haven't already, check out Episode 8 of Making Melanite: If You Create It...
In that episode, I talk about my previous desire to wait until everything was perfect before I started sharing my ideas and stories. I touched on my crazy writing style and how it has a tendency to get in the way of creating. I also mention how during this period of Social Distancing or Guarantee (whatever the correct term is) I've decided to throw caution to the wind and just create.
In the episode I mentioned how I found one of my old writing notebooks and the ideas and development I put into creating this world, only to have it linger on the shelf for I don't know how long.
I just want to give you a sense of how much effort I had put into my stories in the past only for them not to go anywhere because I didn't think I had it in me to do something like this.
This is just one of the notebooks that I have in my house. This particular story is "still in development". I wrote a screenplay based on the notes here, but it didn't hit the spot like I would have wanted it to so I shelved it. As you can see, there is dust on the notebook so it may be time to dust it off and get to working on it again.
This particular story was called Nubia. I have changed the title to Kingdom's Treasure. Not sure that will stick, but feels better than Nubia right now. As you can tell, I wrote a lot and had even gone back to make notes and edit it, but had never gone back. This scene would have occurred very early on in the book. I like it and believe it does set the story up so I may end up keeping it, but as you can see, it needs a lot of work.
Another thing I spent a lot of time on was building maps. I wanted to make sure I remained consistent and that I knew where things were, so I created maps of the castle grounds, the compound the character lives in and a map of the entire world.
At this point, the landscape has changed. Since this story will fit into the sub-universe under Obsidian Prime, the landscape will be changing. Still working out the details on how that is going to work, but that is the fun with creating.
I also knew what I wanted the characters to look like. This character's name has changed, but in my head, she still looks similar to Jada only with a darker complexion. I had costumes and designs that were very crudely drawn but worked to give me a visual as I wrote.
I also created a timeline to help keep me on track. The timeline will need to change since the story and plot have shifted, but a lot of elements can be repurposed and reused somewhere else.
Writing is a process and one that takes time. Don't wait till everything is perfect! Instead, create and give yourself permission to learn and grow. Then look back on what you have created before and see exactly how much you have grown and come.
- Theophilus