This week should wrap up my little tale of how I discovered Abaeloth, and then we’ll discuss more broad topics concerning writing. I do hope that describing a little bit of my journey has and will continue to get the gears turning in your head.
No matter how much we love our characters, there’s got to be plot to keep them going, and in my case, I needed plot to get Nes and Mathias on the same island.
To be fair, around this time I also began exploring Abaeloth’s history as a whole. Developing Elidae was a direct result of developing the world’s governing bodies (more on that tomorrow), and so I ran two stories of sorts side by side while discovering both the story at hand and the bigger picture. When I sat down with Mathias to ask him how he reached Elidae, he introduced me properly to Etha, who took me on this bigger journey. I currently have this specific story outlined for release on Wattpad, but more on that at a later date.
Anyway, what Mathias ultimately gave me was that he was a demon hunter and, obviously, demons were attacking Elidae. With Nessix essentially all by herself, he went to her rescue. And honestly, that was as deep as the plot was for quite some time. The demons had no real motive and Mathias never questioned them, and I just started writing.
I should add here that I only outlined in the very broadest sense of the word and it was the first time since I began writing in fourth grade that I found my story shifting off the outline on its own accord. I was still discovering my writing style and methods and chose to allow these wandering thoughts to come out, but at the end of each chapter, I tried to pull things back on course.
Ten years down the road, I realize that I would have been better served to let the plot trail down the road it wanted to take and it would have saved me some massive headaches during revisions. Remember what I said last week about trusting yourself? I’m not saying you need to completely abort your original plan, and some people do swimmingly with outlines. But do at least entertain the idea that the story may know better than you do where it needs to go.
During this phase, I was still getting to know Etha and Abaeloth, and it wasn’t until I surrendered to the fact that my deities were full-fledged characters in their own rights that the world and my plot began to come to life. In the whirlwind of new characters, new places, needing to develop a magic system and cultures, I discovered just how important it was to surrender control to my creativity. Being a perfectionist and terrified of being out of control, it was a big step for me, but it led me to the mantra that I will tell you every single day. Keep faith in the journey.
-Kat
