proof that I'm going crazy...

...or that I'm doing something right.

I spent a solid two hours writing this afternoon. It was surprising to me that my attention span lasted, but also that I made real progress. My male lead is developing his character, and I'm prepping to nearly completely rewrite the first section that I wrote today. Yeah, I know...I made progress and now I'm changing everything. That is part of the proof that I am doing something right! 

Proof that I may be going crazy: one of my minor characters (or so I thought!) decided that she wanted to be someone else. She told me. And she wouldn't let it go until I made the change in my notes. Like I said, I may be going crazy. But I know that I'm not the only writer that this happens to. Stephenie Meyer, for example, tells a similar story about one of her minor characters in the Twilight series. On her website, she writes, "Jacob's development into a major character was a strange journey. Originally, Jacob was just a device. ... Something happened then that I didn't expect. Jacob was my first experience with a character taking over—a minor character developing such roundness and life that I couldn't keep him locked inside a tiny role. (Since Jacob, this has reoccurred with several other meant-to-be-minor characters. I really love it when this happens, though it often destroys my outlines.) From the very beginning, even when Jacob only appeared in chapter six of Twilight, he was so alive. I liked him. More than I should for such a small part."

Granted, I haven't gotten far enough in my story to have what happened to me tonight be monumental...yet. Although I'm already seeing changes just from this one thing. A few hours ago, Elizabeth was just a name I had written down to fill out a family that was functioning as backstory. Now, she's editing the plot! 

I think that I am really starting to love the writing process. Bring on the insanity! =)

On Books

I'm wondering if I am the only person bothered by the fact that C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia were re-arranged and republished in the new order after Lewis' death. I can't possibly be the only person who wishes that they could have just left well-enough alone.

Maybe it is just me. But I can't help but be struck by how wonderful the books were in their original order - like the children, we as readers were strangers in a new world, trying to piece together the parts of a magnificent mystery. Sure, the books are a tatch more logical when put in chronological order, but Narnia isn't just about the history of Narnia. It's a look at growing up, discovering faith, learning how to apply that faith when you aren't a child any longer. I love how we move through the journey of learning those things and then having to return to the everyday world of home, first with Peter and Susan, then with Edmund and Lucy, later with Eustace and Jill, and so on down the line. I  realize that we don't meet all of the characters in order, but it's the timeline of putting the world together in little bits that was so fascinating for me as a child, and even now as a young adult. 

I loved that The Magician's Nephew was book 6. You spend all these years learning about Narnia and the children that have lived there and visited there, and then you get to go back by a happy accident (or is it a carefully planned adventure?) and see how everything came to be before everyone else got there.

That's my two cents. At least they left The Last Battle where it was! :)

For anyone wishing to take the journey through Narnia in the original order, please read the books this way:

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Prince Caspian

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The Silver Chair

The Horse and His Boy

The Magician's Nephew

The Last Battle