Almost a year ago, I sat down at my desk at home, and started writing a story. I didn't know what I wanted to write, but I just started typing away.I began writing about two siblings who had accidentally gone through a portal and ended up in an alternative universe. I loved the concept of arriving in an alternative universe, but I struggled with where to go with the story after a while.
One day I read what I had written trying to reorient myself with the story line and I was stuck. I didn't like what I read and felt I couldn't move past that proverbial wall. So, I did what most people do decided to start over. I made a copy of the story, completely deconstructed it, and created something different. Now my characters would end up in the past rather than in an alternative universe.
Now, you're probably wondering why that particular genre? Well, I've always enjoyed sci-fi stories, whether it was in the form of books, TV shows, or movies, so I was drawn to write something in that genre.
Over the years, I've enjoyed reading books in a variety of genres. Here's a list of some of my favorites:
There are obviously many more books that I've read over the years as well, but these are the ones that I've kept returning to and thinking about as I write.
This leads me to the next thing I want to discuss. While I was writing I kept thinking back to the many stories I've enjoyed over the years. And the main question was what did I like about those stories?
I loved the way the settings were set up, so I tried to emulate some of that in my books. That meant that I needed to have a balance of what I wanted the reader to see in their imaginations, but also be able to come up with their own picture.
I also liked the way the characters spoke in the books that I've read. The flow of dialogue was important to me. For example, I like reading books told in the first person point of view, where the main character was telling the story, but I tend to be more comfortable writing in the third person, someone else telling the story.
I've tried both points of view. The first book, when Brooke and Bently end up arriving in 1922, the book is told in the third person ominescent, where you don't just know what one character is thinking, but what many are thinking. But in the second book, when I'm focusing on Henry, I'm writing it in first person, Henry's point of view. I'm doing the same with the third book that I'm currently working on, focusing on Pete's point of view, mainly because I'm telling Pete's story.
In conclusion, there are several things that I needed to consider when I decided to start writing: what genre I wanted to write in, what story I wanted to tell, who the characters would be, and what point of view I wanted to tell the story through.
I've enjoyed, and still am enjoying telling these stories, but as I consider the next project I want to focus on, I'm back at the drawing board again working these details out.
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