GUYS! I just finished the first draft of Golden and it feels amazing!!
I know this isn't normally what I talk about on Friday's but honestly I didn't have a post planned and I'm feeling not so great today so this post will be short and sweet.
The first draft of Golden has been finished at 73,005 words and 249 pages and like twenty-five chapters give or take (yeah the chapters in this book are excruciatingly long... revising is going to be hard...). I've never felt this passionate or excited about something I've written before... like ever. Weapon Icean was definitely exciting and fun to write but I didn't connect with Delphi nearly as much as I have with Renee and my smaller cast of individuals in Golden. I started writing Golden when my anxiety was starting to come back and was right in the middle of writing it when my anxiety got really bad for the first time in a while. Renee really took the brunt of that anxiety. I talked about that last week so I won't get into again but Renee is really something awesome. She is so determined and stubborn and strong. I don't think I've ever written such a strong character. No male or female character I've ever written has been as strong and wonderful and real as Renee Ross. With my anxiety being so bad I really delved into her world and got lost in Renee and Jax and my little band of characters that I got to know on a more intimate level than I did with the cast of Weapon Icean. I love them all.
Renee for her uncompromising back bone and for her constantly flaring temper. Jax for his compassionate and kind heart, for how he persevered through a difficult childhood and still ended up a wonderful, heroic good as can be guy. Kellen for being my sort of strict and formal, yet caring and kind mentor person. Twilin took me by surprise about half way through. He's sort of like an Empath and has a very empathic and compassionate feel to him. He puts everyone at ease and is so charming and calm and patient. And of course my minor characters. Cami and Tayla who were both fun to write because they gave Renee such a hard time and Terry and Harry-the twins-for being quiet supporters of Jax and Renee the whole time. They were sort of the background guys, working in the shadows, and more observing than anything else. And then there's Zayde who also took me by surprise half way through the book. He came out of nowhere and completely derailed the entire plot. He demanded center stage in the book and ever since he came into play he kept surprising me and changing the plot.
I had a completely different idea of how the book was going to end and where Renee was going to be and what sort of person she was going to be but Zayde would have none of it. He turned everything upside down and because of him I ended the book in a very different place than I thought I would be with Renee changed in a very different way then I was planning. I love when my characters take over and tell me the story instead of the other way around and Zayde definitely stepped up to the plate and really, created Golden. Without him Golden wouldn't be what it is now.
The theme that came out of Renee and the characters took me by surprise as well. I never really expect to make a point in my books and most of the time I don't. The themes are pretty subtle if nonexistent. (It's one of my short comings as a writer since I don't really like causing conflict or stating my opinion too strongly so to have a theme drive book is a bit difficult for me). But the theme that came out of Golden is interesting and one that I will explore, it's definitely made me think about a vey prominent issue in today's society and I'll have to decide how strong I want that theme and opinion to be.
I just realized that I never really wrote down on here what Golden is actually about, so before I wrap this up I'll give you a quick, messy overall blurb of what Golden is all about. (I'm really bad at synopsis's and blurbs). Golden is set in a futuristic time period (I'm still deciding if I want it to be a futuristic 2017 or in the near future). Several years ago, I want to say about ten or fifteen, the planet was in disarray. There was chaos everywhere. Corrupt government, anarchy in the streets, criminals getting away with murder. Fear and hysteria were widespread throughout the planet. Earth itself was disgusting mess of pollution an waist and was on the verge of environmental collapse. It pretty much looked like the world was about to go all post-apocalyptic. And then, one day, a spaceship came down and a race of aliens with golden skin and hair and eyes appeared. They were polite and civilized and wonderfully kind and compassionate. They also had very advanced technology and very smart engineers, inventors and scientists. People were so desperate for help they gladly welcomed the Celests and within a few years, with the Celests' help, Earth as righted and it was as if none of that almost post-apocalyptic world had ever happened.
Renee's story starts several years later. She's grown up in a home full of prodigies. Her mother is a brain surgeon, her dad a famous artist. Her little brother is a musical prodigy and her older twin sisters are geniuses. But Renee is just the average, ordinary girl. Nothing special about her. The Celests have begun the Celest Enlightenment Program. They recruit humans with a specific kind of DNA or gene (I'm not sciency so I still have to do my research on the right terminology) and Renee happens to have that specific DNA/gene. Kellen appears at her home to recruit her and being the stubborn, paranoid, suspicious girl she is Renee questions him and then says no blatantly. The next day two guys in hoods break into her house and try to kill her. Kellen appears and saves her and adventure, danger, and a messy series of events unfold.
Sorry if that was too much but I always love talking about backstory sooo yeah, that's what Golden more or less about. There's aliens and spaceships and first love and cool gadgets and super powers and betrayal. It's got a little of everything that makes a good story in my opinion.
I am so excited that the first draft is finished and now I can work on fixing up Project Khione and get to revising Golden. The long chapters are going to make it hard but it'll be so worth it and I am honestly really excited to get into it and fix it up and make it the best it can be.
I am honestly really thankful to God for giving me this gift and for supplying me with ideas, specifically this one. Now that I think about it, I feel like Golden and Renee was a bit of an answered prayer. My anxiety was really bad and I was feeling lifeless and frustrated with my writing and I did pray about both of those things (probably not as much as I should have) and I feel like God really came through and gave me back my passion and love and hope for writing through this idea of Renee and Golden. I know that probably sounds weird but Golden gave me a lot of happiness and excitement and hope that my writing is good and that it is worth it and that it will go somewhere, when I wasn't feeling so great and all of those things, passion and happiness and excitement and hope come from God so I think He did help me out with this idea quite a bit.
Thanks for reading my crazy rant about Golden! I have a feeling there will be more rants and ramblings about Golden as I go through and revise and edit it.
I know this isn't normally what I talk about on Friday's but honestly I didn't have a post planned and I'm feeling not so great today so this post will be short and sweet.
The first draft of Golden has been finished at 73,005 words and 249 pages and like twenty-five chapters give or take (yeah the chapters in this book are excruciatingly long... revising is going to be hard...). I've never felt this passionate or excited about something I've written before... like ever. Weapon Icean was definitely exciting and fun to write but I didn't connect with Delphi nearly as much as I have with Renee and my smaller cast of individuals in Golden. I started writing Golden when my anxiety was starting to come back and was right in the middle of writing it when my anxiety got really bad for the first time in a while. Renee really took the brunt of that anxiety. I talked about that last week so I won't get into again but Renee is really something awesome. She is so determined and stubborn and strong. I don't think I've ever written such a strong character. No male or female character I've ever written has been as strong and wonderful and real as Renee Ross. With my anxiety being so bad I really delved into her world and got lost in Renee and Jax and my little band of characters that I got to know on a more intimate level than I did with the cast of Weapon Icean. I love them all.
Renee for her uncompromising back bone and for her constantly flaring temper. Jax for his compassionate and kind heart, for how he persevered through a difficult childhood and still ended up a wonderful, heroic good as can be guy. Kellen for being my sort of strict and formal, yet caring and kind mentor person. Twilin took me by surprise about half way through. He's sort of like an Empath and has a very empathic and compassionate feel to him. He puts everyone at ease and is so charming and calm and patient. And of course my minor characters. Cami and Tayla who were both fun to write because they gave Renee such a hard time and Terry and Harry-the twins-for being quiet supporters of Jax and Renee the whole time. They were sort of the background guys, working in the shadows, and more observing than anything else. And then there's Zayde who also took me by surprise half way through the book. He came out of nowhere and completely derailed the entire plot. He demanded center stage in the book and ever since he came into play he kept surprising me and changing the plot.
 |
| Me when Zayde showed up lol! |
I had a completely different idea of how the book was going to end and where Renee was going to be and what sort of person she was going to be but Zayde would have none of it. He turned everything upside down and because of him I ended the book in a very different place than I thought I would be with Renee changed in a very different way then I was planning. I love when my characters take over and tell me the story instead of the other way around and Zayde definitely stepped up to the plate and really, created Golden. Without him Golden wouldn't be what it is now.
The theme that came out of Renee and the characters took me by surprise as well. I never really expect to make a point in my books and most of the time I don't. The themes are pretty subtle if nonexistent. (It's one of my short comings as a writer since I don't really like causing conflict or stating my opinion too strongly so to have a theme drive book is a bit difficult for me). But the theme that came out of Golden is interesting and one that I will explore, it's definitely made me think about a vey prominent issue in today's society and I'll have to decide how strong I want that theme and opinion to be.
I just realized that I never really wrote down on here what Golden is actually about, so before I wrap this up I'll give you a quick, messy overall blurb of what Golden is all about. (I'm really bad at synopsis's and blurbs). Golden is set in a futuristic time period (I'm still deciding if I want it to be a futuristic 2017 or in the near future). Several years ago, I want to say about ten or fifteen, the planet was in disarray. There was chaos everywhere. Corrupt government, anarchy in the streets, criminals getting away with murder. Fear and hysteria were widespread throughout the planet. Earth itself was disgusting mess of pollution an waist and was on the verge of environmental collapse. It pretty much looked like the world was about to go all post-apocalyptic. And then, one day, a spaceship came down and a race of aliens with golden skin and hair and eyes appeared. They were polite and civilized and wonderfully kind and compassionate. They also had very advanced technology and very smart engineers, inventors and scientists. People were so desperate for help they gladly welcomed the Celests and within a few years, with the Celests' help, Earth as righted and it was as if none of that almost post-apocalyptic world had ever happened.
Renee's story starts several years later. She's grown up in a home full of prodigies. Her mother is a brain surgeon, her dad a famous artist. Her little brother is a musical prodigy and her older twin sisters are geniuses. But Renee is just the average, ordinary girl. Nothing special about her. The Celests have begun the Celest Enlightenment Program. They recruit humans with a specific kind of DNA or gene (I'm not sciency so I still have to do my research on the right terminology) and Renee happens to have that specific DNA/gene. Kellen appears at her home to recruit her and being the stubborn, paranoid, suspicious girl she is Renee questions him and then says no blatantly. The next day two guys in hoods break into her house and try to kill her. Kellen appears and saves her and adventure, danger, and a messy series of events unfold.
Sorry if that was too much but I always love talking about backstory sooo yeah, that's what Golden more or less about. There's aliens and spaceships and first love and cool gadgets and super powers and betrayal. It's got a little of everything that makes a good story in my opinion.
I am so excited that the first draft is finished and now I can work on fixing up Project Khione and get to revising Golden. The long chapters are going to make it hard but it'll be so worth it and I am honestly really excited to get into it and fix it up and make it the best it can be.
 |
| Golden still has a long way to go. |
I am honestly really thankful to God for giving me this gift and for supplying me with ideas, specifically this one. Now that I think about it, I feel like Golden and Renee was a bit of an answered prayer. My anxiety was really bad and I was feeling lifeless and frustrated with my writing and I did pray about both of those things (probably not as much as I should have) and I feel like God really came through and gave me back my passion and love and hope for writing through this idea of Renee and Golden. I know that probably sounds weird but Golden gave me a lot of happiness and excitement and hope that my writing is good and that it is worth it and that it will go somewhere, when I wasn't feeling so great and all of those things, passion and happiness and excitement and hope come from God so I think He did help me out with this idea quite a bit.
Thanks for reading my crazy rant about Golden! I have a feeling there will be more rants and ramblings about Golden as I go through and revise and edit it.
Have a great weekend everyone! :)
Comments
Post a Comment