Writing. Even if we do not use it, it helps us to learn.
Although I saw great success with NaNoWriMo this past November, I will be taking another approach on the same story - effective immediately. I came to realize that I, as the author and creator of this world, was having difficulty in keeping the details corralled in. There was too much going on that had no relation to the progression of the story - mostly background details that could be revealed in a more effective way through different storytelling.
I talked with Dylan, who helped me to decide that a first person Point of View may be a more effective way to tell this particular story. Epicenter was never meant to be very long. It is a prequel to a much larger work, and an origin story for one of that work's dominant characters - the protagonist, Jei Akagi.
Writing how I was, I'd nearly lost her. She was so twisted up in minor details that she was bland, uninteresting. As the subject of a novel in a work of character driven fiction - well...this is a life or death sort of mistake. I needed to fix it before I went too far.
That doesn't mean that everything - all 130 pages of it - was worthless, however. It still serves as an excellent backbone, and source material from which I can draw from. And hell, if it doesn't work out - I still have it ready to go back to.
So far Dylan has told me that the newest attempt flows much better, and is much easier to read. This is good. Now, to keep going. December saw me extremely depressed (a low to go with the high from November, which is worrisome because I could do very little to control it and turn it around), but January has me somewhere in between.
My goal? To write. To break out of the monotony that chains my mind. To learn. To read. To improve. And most of all, to do what I love. That's what this is all about, isn't it?
This has been your half-asleep ramble-fest. Enjoy!
