Joely Sue Burkhart

I’m out of my comfort zone, entirely, with this next project.  Just writing the backstory is exciting, and terrifying.  I’ve already had several discussions with my Beloved Sis, bless her heart, and I haven’t even started page 1 of the real novella yet!  This is one of those stories that I could never have written before now, for a variety of reasons.

There is one particular defining moment that I’ve got to get right for Conn and Rae before a single word of story will work.  It’s raw, uncomfortable, and wrought with conflict.  Out of five years of backstory, I know everything about them, EXCEPT for one week.  One very vulnerable, tense week.  Both of them make mistakes with huge consequences.  Mistakes that will take 30K to fix in the novella (or more).  But they’ve got to be REAL believable mistakes, defining their characters, their beliefs, everything about them. 

Without this exploration, the main story is nothing but fluff.

So as agonizing as it is to dig deeper into their angst-riddled past, I must.  Another 3300+ words tonight in prework for ”Letters to An English Professor” or “Fix-It Lady” or whatever the heck I end up calling it.

I also edited 3 pages or so of TFW.  I meant to do more, but I’ve got to get this backstory right so I can finish plotting the darned thing.  I need to know the mistakes of the past to make sure they face–and overcome–those same pitfalls in the Dark Moment.  Fear.  A good hero’s journey is all about fear.

Even my own.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 27th, 2007 at 11:19 pm and is filed under Writing, 70 Days of Sweat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.