Hey guys!

This week I’ve been working on refining the first nine chapters of my novel, and I’ve been so busy not only prematurely editing my book, but also building my fantasy realm, that I forgot I had a blog until nine p.m. on March eleventh. And… yeah. So let’s talk a bit about what I’ve been working on…

Magic vs. Electricity:

Until just now, my world had cell phones, and cars, and TVs, and all these human creations. But then after a conversation with my older sister/editor, she brought to my attention that if I want to really submerge my readers in a fantasy realm, I should make things centered on magic and fantastical ways of doing things. So I’m pulling out every mention of electricity and instead making everything run on magic! I’m still figuring out the whole system, but so far I like where I’m going.

Clothing:

Garments, apparel, layers, call it what you want; clothes play a major part in scene-setting. Since Unmentionable-Plot-Number-One, my humanimals have always worn modern American type clothes: sneakers, T-shirts, jeans, etc. Buuut… (yes, there’s always a ‘but’), old-timey clothes make for a much more romantic and fantasy vibe, wouldn’t you say? So I changed that. I also changed their year, now that I mention it. Before my book was taking place in like, I dunno, the four thousands, but now we’re back in nineteen hundreds and things are getting adorable. (I love love love love peasant blouses and skirts, old-fashioned dresses and puffed sleeves… and boots!!) Also it just makes more sense to me since they have a monarchy and the untouched forest surrounding the kingdom.

The Fauna:

Okay, I’m going to be frank with you—yes, I am pulling an Avatar: the Last Airbender. I’m taking two or more ordinary creatures and smushing them together to create things like raccoon-falcons. (They’re adorable!) I’m also adding all sorts of things such as wood nymphs and fairies and witches and spirits and… you get the idea.

My Characters:

I’ve done a lot to my poor, unsuspecting characters in the past week. First of all, I deleted three of them, second, (and this time on a happier note) I’ve started to develop them further and now I understand their motivations and goals and backstories. Also, through discovering my characters, I also realized that there were sweet messages in my book that I hadn’t noticed before. For example, two of my three MCs are the bridge between two fighting kingdoms, and it’s their friendship that sets the example to the rest of my characters. Like Romeo and Juliet, except there’s no romantic interest and they don’t die at the end, so. That’s a plus.

And that’s pretty much it (also the tablet is about to die), so thanks for reading! I’ll see you next week! Bye!