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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Why Hello There...

So, there's this new boy in my life. He kind of makes me smile a lot, and he's really sweet and thoughtful and ohmygoshCUTE. He's been bouncing around my head for a few weeks now, but only yesterday introduced himself. He's just THAT considerate; didn't want to overwhelm me in the midst of my panicking about the Stream Pirate sequel.

Who is this new boy, you ask? Oh, I think you'll like him. His name's Max. Maxence Pate, to be precise. I haven't gotten to know too much about Maxie yet (he hates when I call him Maxie, but he's just too nice to tell me to stop), as his almost-annoying amount of consideration has prevented him from telling me how his story begins until I am no longer swamped with homework. He knows that if he told me what the first line is, I'd politely tell my archaeology homework to piss off and spend every waking moment getting to know him. Oh, Maxie, you're going to be fun. I can tell.

Anyway, Max's appearance made me make the very painful decision to shelve Rechanneled. Not forever, mind you; I fully intend to come back to it one day. But the hope that Max's story offered in other book to get giddy-excited about was too tempting to pass up. It also made me realize something I had been fighting to ignore for weeks: Rechanneled was REALLY boring.

Okay, literally, it wasn't boring. There were a lot of swordfights and night-attacks and brother-sister tension and character development and more things stream piratey, but as I was writing it, I was bored. I kept writing, thinking, Okay, the next part will be interesting. Exciting. The next scene will take off. But I'd get to the next scene, write it, be so bored my chest felt like it would implode, and end it with an exhausted sigh. This cycle left me feeling like the world's worst writer. Like I had failed somehow, that I couldn't even keep my own story interesting. Would nothing I ever wrote again be exciting for me? Had I lost my writing spark?

I LOVE the world of Stream Pirate. It will probably always be my favorite of all my worlds. But writing Rechanneled was making me dislike it. Once I realized that, and once Max came a-strolling in, I knew I had to stop. I wasn't writing Rechanneled because, like Max's story, I felt I NEEDED to write it. I was writing Rechanneled because I felt I HAD to write it. Somewhere in the deep dark caverns of my writer's mind I felt I had to finish the planned Stream Pirate trilogy NOW, before I started anything else, while Lu's voice was still fresh in my head. I felt if I didn't finish it now, I would lose the *spark* of the story and regret diverting to other projects. I felt like I would be letting Lu and Yazoo and all the other characters down, leaving their story dangling unfinished.

But then I realized -- that's completely silly. Again, Max helped me realize this (can you tell how much I love this dude?). His voice is already vibrant in my head and jabbering of its own accord. He WANTS his story to be told. Lu and Yazoo don't want the rest of their story told yet. I haven't heard a peep out of Lu since I got the general idea for a Stream Pirate trilogy. That's part of what made writing Rechanneled such a chore; Lu wasn't helping me. She wasn't yet ready to tell Rechanneled, and I was trying to force her, worried I would lose her. But in some twisted only-happens-to-a-writer way, I never even had her in Rechanneled. So I won't lose anything in shelving it for now. And I have to trust Lu that when she's ready to tell me the rest of her story, she'll come running back to the forefront of my brain, talking a million miles a minute in true Lu-like fashion and complaining about the lack of sanitation on steamboats.

But for now, it's all Max, all the time.

Isn't he a cutie?

I must leave you with something to make you chuckle whilst I melt part of my brain. I mean, whilst I read an archaeology article. Seriously, the end of the quarter CANNOT come fast enough.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know, it sounds like what happened when my MC Miyuki came and took over from my last writing project. I was bored with it too (having worked on it for three years...) and the characters were tired.

Then Miyuki/Yuki-onna came along and demanded I tell her story. And I couldn't say no to her, the snow monster :P

It already sounds interesting though especially reading that little blurb in your previous post. Do you think you'll work on some of the outlining and such during NaNo?


BTW I love the video. Have to show it to my techie husband who does that for a living. :)

Mariah Irvin said...

Ooh, melikes Max. Lu will always be around when you need her.

Also, Max is trying to end genocide? Hells yeah. I think I'm in love.

That guy in the video is like me with Macs *shiver*

Renee Collins said...

You go, girl! I'm all about going with where the passion takes us.

Also, I think your new story sounds very cool. I'm definitely intrigued. Write it, write it! :)

Frankie Diane Mallis said...

Omg priceless and Max seems awesome!

Jade said...

Yeah you can't force it--you're either there or your not.

Don't new ideas rock?! It's the best part, before plot issues and flat characters make you want to play laptop frisbee. Perhaps that's just me?

lisa and laura said...

This is what scares me about contracted books. I can't imagine signing on for a series and then having to force yourself to write books when you'd rather be working on something else.

Anyways, Max is hot. For real.

Sara Raasch said...

Dara -- I plan on doing Discovery for NaNo; though, if it doesn't flow right, I don't want to force the 50,000 out. I'm totally letting Max have control with this one. No more forcing characters to tell their story when they really don't want to.

Mariah -- I think I'd be like that with Macs too. Way too complicated, since I'm all used to PC's.

Renee -- Let the passion be our guide!

Frankie -- Thanks :)

Jade -- Laptop frisbee. Wow. Let me stop laughing about that mental image first...

L&L -- That's part of the reason I wanted to finish the SP Trilogy now. I thought if I got under contract, it'd be even harder, and I least wanted to have a rough draft done. But nope. Just as difficult not being under contract.

Natalie Whipple said...

While I totally get what you're saying, I want to say for the record that Rechanneled was NOT at all in any way boring. That's ridiculous. I was LOVING it, and I have excellent taste:P

But since I have my own policy to not write sequels until book deals happen, I'm giving you a pass.

Sara Raasch said...

Nat-nat -- I "knew" Rechanneled wasn't boring. But for whatever reason, writing it made me aggravated/bored to the point where I would dream about other stories/things I should be doing/HOMEWORK while writing it. That ain't supposed to happen. So even though I "knew" it wasn't boring, I didn't KNOW it wasn't boring. If that makes sense.

Elana Johnson said...

I'm so glad you've found another character to help you in your writing! Sounds awesome. And yes, he is cute. *wink*

Kate Walton said...

Max and his story sound really, really interesting. Go on now, git to bringing him to life!!!!

Hayley Lovell said...

Max's story sounds awesome! And to top it off he's quite nice to look at...good choice Sara, Lu will return eventually on her terms but till then I think Max deserves some attention. I mean do you see those eyes? Wait he's in your head you already know...

Samantha said...

Hint. For the familiar--add an ou (pronounced ooh- the French way) Alas, Max hates being called Maxie b/c he'd prefer Maxou – a term of endearment. Not that I know what I'm talking about. tee-hee.

Sara Raasch said...

Sam -- Thanks for the French tip :) I forgot you have an inside scoop into the French life! I may be using your expertise when I get further into Discovery...