Once the creative juices were allowed to flow freely they just can’t be stopped! and I don’t think I ever want them too. I am having the most exciting and revealing experience working on my book. I have had to battle with the reality of not understanding my main character, just how involved it is to develop an entirely new world and creating an interesting story arch that isn’t just a regurgitation of well known and often overused themes.

I began working on this story about a year ago and then hit a snag when I realized that the main character and I just didn’t understand one another. I was desperately trying to put her in a very particular box and she refused to stay there. So instead I focused on the world my character would be interacting with. I created maps, developed class systems, and various cultural traditions. But, then a few months ago I had a breakthrough, I realized that like myself my main character was not a fan of boxes. I began to start asking myself some questions regarding her motivations and her reactions to certain problems she would encounter within the story and realized she was a lot more like myself than I had planned. While there are still some noticeable differences between us I could not escape the fact that the story I am writing is inspired by a personal experience I had when I was visiting my grandparent’s property and those thoughts and feelings are what drive my character to keep going.

So now I have the foundation for my book. There is a map, family trees, main characters and supporting characters, and I even have an exciting story arch with some very interesting twists. Look forward to some excerpts of my work soon, I hope it will inspire you as much as it is me.

Alisha Kendall