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elfsAs is typical of my writing habits, Princess Jera wouldn't leave me alone so I wrote her first chapter, and after two days ended up with 5,414 words. Not too bad. Two somewhat innocuous sex scenes (as this is in my fantasy pornoverse) that Jera and consequently the reader get to read about.
Which puts my story in the same category as that of the first Aimee novel: two stories told side-by-side, in the past a rise from crisis to victory, in the present a slow descent into horror. In this case, the scenarios are reversed: the story in the past is the slow descent into horror, the story in the present is one of discovery followed by crisis, but there is the twist: the story in the past has no happy ending. It is an object lesson from which Jera must learn what *not to do* to survive her own predicament which, in chapter one, she barely perceives or understands.
I wrote enough to allow me set the story aside, at least for a while. But as I wrote it, I realized that I had a problem: the story in the past is *easy*. It is not so easy to write Jera's story, because as a Princess of a major empire she has courtiers, hangers-on, her own proto-court wagering on her ascending to the throne, overseers to guard her purity, armsmen to protect her from the commoners, teachers and instructors, all of whom encroach on her privacy. There's also the daily, weekly, and seasonal responsibilities of a princess, with its attendent religious duties, festivals and appearances, not to mention that in two years the yentas will be getting their knives out for one another over Jera's courting-- and as rumors of Jera's newfound talents break out, things are gonna get ugly.
I just can't yet imagine how ugly.
This is why a lot of people "who want to write" stop at chapter one. The responsibility a writer has to the reader-- to tell a good story-- and to the characters-- to get it right-- becomes overwhelming.
Which puts my story in the same category as that of the first Aimee novel: two stories told side-by-side, in the past a rise from crisis to victory, in the present a slow descent into horror. In this case, the scenarios are reversed: the story in the past is the slow descent into horror, the story in the present is one of discovery followed by crisis, but there is the twist: the story in the past has no happy ending. It is an object lesson from which Jera must learn what *not to do* to survive her own predicament which, in chapter one, she barely perceives or understands.
I wrote enough to allow me set the story aside, at least for a while. But as I wrote it, I realized that I had a problem: the story in the past is *easy*. It is not so easy to write Jera's story, because as a Princess of a major empire she has courtiers, hangers-on, her own proto-court wagering on her ascending to the throne, overseers to guard her purity, armsmen to protect her from the commoners, teachers and instructors, all of whom encroach on her privacy. There's also the daily, weekly, and seasonal responsibilities of a princess, with its attendent religious duties, festivals and appearances, not to mention that in two years the yentas will be getting their knives out for one another over Jera's courting-- and as rumors of Jera's newfound talents break out, things are gonna get ugly.
I just can't yet imagine how ugly.
This is why a lot of people "who want to write" stop at chapter one. The responsibility a writer has to the reader-- to tell a good story-- and to the characters-- to get it right-- becomes overwhelming.
