My summer involved a lot of thinking, planning, reading, and napping, and I’ve never been more grateful! In an effort to gather up every possible bit of inspiration, reading popular fantasy novels has been my go-to whenever I’ve had free time. Writing my own novels is no joke, but I’ve put my heart and soul into the start of this project, so I’ll be damned if I don’t finish it strong. The duty of worldbuilding slowly spirals into discovering side characters and untied strings that I track until I get to the end before starting all over again. Finally picking a direction for the story has made it significantly easier, and I let my characters’ choices come naturally from the traits I’ve given them.
It’s interesting, looking at the early stages of my realm and seeing its evolution. In reading, I’ve stuck with the popular choices on TikTok to better understand my desired audience’s wants and needs (especially because I may or may not be included in said target audience). The worst thing is that each series brings heartbreak along with its victories, and I’ve been hurting as a result of every fictional death or mistake. The Thirteen. Cardan’s missing letters. Poppy’s brother. Sam Cortland. UGH there’s more, of course, but just to name a few.
My goal is to envelop readers with so many emotions that their senses become invested in, their adrenaline rushes in effort to find answers about, and their hearts burst with love for these characters. I want to keep feeling sad when a fictional person dies or happy when they finally smile after so many moments of pain, because I felt what they did, too. That’s what makes up the beauty of reading. We find connections to the invisible, to the unseen and untrue, in order for us to make sense of the world we live in.
I’m so close to finalizing this plotline and move on to writing the adventure, but it’ll wait for now.
