About Writing Plans, Part 1 - Twin's Fate

And yes, it's a long journal... I'm sorry ^^


I decided to actually write this book at the end of 2010. And so far, I really haven't written anything.
However, this doesn't mean I'm not working on it, or that I abandoned this project. The contrary in fact.

It's funny. I have a really terrible memory, especially when it comes down to things I should do, or must do.
As in I intent to go to the cellar and get the dried clothes out of the dryer, but instead I go right up - completely forgetting what I wanted to do.
Or last week, I noticed that I run low on Shampoo and that I have to order it again pretty soon (I buy it in big 1l bottles and fill it into a smaller 250ml bottle, and when I wanted to refill it, I noticed that all 3 bottles were empty...) - yet I keep forgetting about it till today.

But when it comes down to things that I personally enjoy? I still remember the maps of games I played as a kid!
Tons and tons of stuff from Ragnarok Online!
I still remember exactly how I met my boyfriend for the first time, even though it was a really random encounter, and exact phrases we shared years ago.
And luckily - I remember everything regarding my book.

I didn't had to take a single note of something I want to include.
I remember every little detail I came up with. All the little parts of the character backstories, their life, their personality, I can picture the environment, the map, the single locations, the structure of 5 very different countries.
And this allows me to rethink these decisions and change them over and over - no matter where I am or what I'm doing (as funny as it sounds, the toilet has provided me with a lot of ideas so far XD)
I read something, watch something or hear something - think about it, get new ideas and think how I could include it to my story or characters - not direct copies, but basic things like reactions, fighting styles and so on - and I can make it up in my head and keep it.


So... there's a lot of thinking and rethinking about the very basics of my book.
And I slowly get to the point where I start to polish out my characters.
A lot has changed from the initial creation of the characters, but 3 characters in particular start to consume a lot of thoughts and changes.

The first is Lunaa.
While her personality is stable and won't be changed, I still worry about her hair color and her name.
For me, she's Lunaa. And I see nothing wrong in two a's when a name like "Aaron" is common and fine. Also, in a fantasy setting, I see no troubles with green hair.
However, sometimes it's not about what you think, but what your readers might think when they read your book. I have no idea, what my audience will be, once the book is finished. It's a fantasy novel, but I think it also has a lot influences from games more then other fantasy novels - which might be refreshing on one side, but maybe also troublesome.
Should I go the safe route and just change it? Or should I keep it and go with it?

The second and third one, however, are much more complicated. And I will go into a little more detail here.

The second one is Hayana.
Hayana has a special ability, as she can communicates with animals. Not downright talking and hearing, but she is understood by animals and she herself knows what the animals are trying to tell her. For example, she looks at a deer and knows how the deer feels, how he sees her, and what he consider as right and wrong. While on the same time, the animals know about her ability to understand them and respect her naturally, consider her as one of them.
It'll be better explained in the book itself, don't worry
But the trouble I'm having is her survival.

At very young age, she decides to go into the woods and live there in company of the animals. She's from a country that consists of deep forests and high mountains, which caused the people living there being focused on either hunting or mining. She's from a hunter village, but due to her love towards animals, she doesn't agree with the way animals are handled and considered from her people, who stopped hunting for survival alone, and started to hunt for prestige and honor as well.

Her goal is to protect her forest and the animals within it.
But this also means, that killing an animal herself is something she would never do. No one with a right mind would kill someone he understands and wants to protect.
She accepts the natural circle of life, and doesn't see it as bad when a pack of wolves hunt down a deer for their survival, but she doesn't want to kill an animal non the less.
However, when she lives in the woods, she needs very strong and durable clothing. Since this world is at the technology advance of the dark ages, the only really durable clothing is leather - which is the first contradiction I run in.
I think it's possible though that she has an agreement with the animals. That wolves spare the hide of the animal they eat so she can use it to work with it - or trade it in, and that an animal which dies out of age could be skinned as well, leaving the meat for the carnivores. This way she follows the natural circle, while not killing herself.
Then again, I don't want to let her interact with humans very often, mostly out of her bad opinion on other humans. So she might use the hide in trades for clothing and tools rather then food, as vegetables are rather expensive compared to meat in her society.

So how does she get her food?
Sure, a forest has tons of berries, nuts, mushrooms, fruits, some animals might provide her willingly with honey and milk actually and some roots and barks might be edible too. I think it would even be possible that she uses a clearance to farm some vegetables.
But I fail to get information on how balanced a vegetarian diet can be when your resources are limited to a forest.
I could make it easy and change the forest to a tropical one - as there are tons of fruits which cover nearly everything you need and people there are often enough on a vegetarian diet, but it just doesn't fit the climate, the animals and especially the society I built up.

So I really struggle with making her survival natural and believable.
All I can find under "vegetarian survival" are tips on how to survive for a rather short time or are concentrated on the "OMG the world could go down, I need to stockpile lots of food and other survival things to hide in a bunker!" part of the US... (seriously... you really need someone to tell you that canned goods, no matter what, basically stay edible for ever?!)
If anyone can give me some good sources on this topic, I gladly take them.


Lastly, the third character, Simara.
Simara originally was pretty simple and stable for me. I didn't thought I had to change anything about her.
She was cold and unapproachable, but more because she was not used to interact with people, was unsocialized and didn't meant bad about it.

The reason behind it was her childhood. Her father died before her birth, her mother died in the night after she gave birth to her. Simara is, let's say, cursed with an Ice curse, that is mostly concentrated in her eyes. So when her mother looked into her eyes during this night for hours on - she froze into an ice crystal.
Since Simara herself also creates a cold climate around her, causing others to feel colder in her near, I always imagined for her to have a very... "cold" childhood in her orphanage. With other children don't want to interact with her, partly bullying her and avoiding her, turning her into an unsocialized person.

But the more I think about her backstory, the more unrealistic it becomes.
The orphanage she's growing up, is one that's specialized on magical gifted children. Some of the children can't remember their parents anymore, some lost their parents rather late and still remember them and some still have parents, but the parents brought them to the "orphanage", so they could be raised and trained in young age to become great mages later on, much like an boarding school.
So with an magical understanding among the children and their caretakers, and with a probably conflict among the three groups of children (not-remembering orphans, remembering orphans and not-orphans), I don't see a reason or an opportunity why Simara should be the only one who's been avoided by really everyone.
It's a harsh childhood, sure, but probably also one that gives you a rather caring personality instead of a cold one.
...and it's far less cliche'd

My only trouble though is my lack of knowledge about actual orphans.
I can imagine how it might be, and I think I'll be able to write an orphan. But more then one at once? That'll get troublesome.
And I'm talking about a lot of backstory in an orphanage, which makes it much more complicated...
I actually would like to go and talk to orphans, ask them of how they're holding up, how they feel, etc.
But let's face it, confronting orphans with traumatic memories isn't something you should actually do... I don't want to traumatize children just for a book...
Not to mention that I doubt anyone would allow me to XD (and rightly so)

Though... Simara got nicer and friendlier the more I thought about her.
Instead of leaving her country for the "Ice Country" because she feels that she belongs into a cold environment, I let her go there to take over a magician job which no one else want to cover because it's so damn cold there! XD
Still a trouble with the orphan knowledge... so if anyone knows a way to research this topic without putting scars on children... let me know ^^


Also, I seriously think about scraping the idea of a trilogy, and put the story into two books instead. I think it would actually make a better pacing