Dec 7, 2016

My "Two Worlds" project hasn’t met its funding goal, so Inkshares has issued refunds to backers. Thank you to everyone who supported it! And don’t worry: reaching a funding goal was never really the point of putting the project up on Inkshares. It was for me to put the darn thing out there and let its presence in the wild serve as motivation for me to get through it.

I am not done with this manuscript. I wrestle with it daily. Every narrative problem solved brings a new one. Sometimes characters stop dead in their tracks because I’m pushing them toward something for which they have no motivation at all. Sometimes I simply can’t figure out how to get from one turning point in the story to the next. I have the general shape of the story in my head; I’m just trying to figure out how it will find its way to its proper ending.

I finished a manuscript a couple of years ago, just to prove to myself that I could finish one. I didn’t love it, and it wasn’t really the story I wanted to tell. This one is. It’s also almost entirely character-driven, not plot-driven as the first manuscript was. I can tell you this: I’ve learned that it’s a lot easier to make up a plot that drags the characters along in its wake than it is to shape characters that are dimensional and internally consistent, but sometimes have no interest in whatever plot you devise for them. That’s when you realize you’ve got something wrong. Either you have to rethink the path ahead for the story, or you have to consider the possibility that you’ve got the wrong character for the part.

In "Two Worlds," Lucy doesn’t know where she’s going but doesn’t really mind that much. John, and several other characters who don’t appear in the posted chapters, think they know where they’re going. They’re probably wrong. Either way, they’re all driving me crazy. Sometimes I feel like a dog-walker with eight leashes in hand. I’m just trying to get everybody to the park.

Thanks to everyone who backed the project and thanks to everyone who’s following. I will do my best to post updates, and the project will remain here on Inkshares. I’ll let you know when I manage to wrangle the characters and the story and find the end.