Some big changes are happening for the Pirouette Rewrite. I have been brainstorming, along with the help of some writer friends, ways to make my world –and its creatures–more unique. Naturally, it’s been said since the dawn of time that there’s no such thing as being totally unique — that everything has been done before. But I beg to differ. I think a writer can, if she stretches her wings a bit, come up with something more unique, if not completely unique.
For instance, I mixed two races together and gave them similar magic. While that’s not totally unique, I know (from careful research) that this mix hasn’t been done much out there. The magic system is very different, again, not something I see everywhere. I’ve used some different elements to make the magic system more different. Hopefully, it will be good.
I tend to mix and match different ideas anyway, hoping to come up with a combination that’s completely new and exciting. Take Requiem in Blue, for an example. It’s not your average cyberpunk dystopic thing. It has the added element of mind control, which is a fun thing to explore (only ficticiously, naturally). I think the two in combination make Requiem that much more unique.
Naturally, all things require a complete rebuild for worldbuilding, class system, etc, as well as the story itself. Alot of the original (and proposed new plot before these changes) will need to be redone. Luckily, I haven’t started the Rewrite yet, so everything can be in flux. You’re probably wondering why I’d put myself through this. Why not just roll with the Rewrite as is? Why tinker? Well….that’s the thing. Alot of my decisions happened on the fly (as evidenced by the 400k manuscript) and alot of them weren’t consistent with the worldbuilding, or introduced new elements that just would not work. Well, you ask, why not make it work? Simple. Because then the story would suffer.
In fantasy and sci-fi, especially, the worldbuilding needs to be top notch. I can’t just decide one day that this magic, or element, has to go because it’s inconvenient. It’s will undermine the story. It’s like trying to mess with the physics of our world. People don’t fly, right? They don’t have wings. If people could fly, our world would be much different, right? And it would change everything.
Same thing with fictional worlds. You don’t break your rules just because. I did alot of that. Telempathy was my answer for everything — that was the vampires’ major magic ability. Something went wrong? Use telempathy. Alisia’s in a bind and can’t get out –use telempathy. In my defense, I did make it possible to lose telempathy for awhile (“burning it out”) to impose limitations (another important thing in fictional magic systems) but even that got old and repetitive. So I needed something new. Something more logical and with limits. This new magic system does all of that. It’s governed by the lunar cycle and location — i.e. where the vamp or Fae is — either on our Earth or in there own parallel world. It’s kind of like Faerie, where their magic is stronger in the parallel world vs. Earth. I still need a new name for Earth, too –a name that the magical races would use to describe us.
So I believe all of these changes are going to make it stronger. I can feel it. I can tell by the why my heart pounds when I think about it. It’s so cool. I really owe a debt of gratitude to the one friend who made this possible (she will know who she is, if she ever reads this) because while I came up with alot of it on my own, she was the catalyst for something big and major. And I will always been grateful for that.
So I prolly won’t be able to start the Rewrite in June, unless I hit it hard this month, which was what I was supposed to do. The edit isn’t done yet –but is close –and I do want to finish it in case I missed anything. I still need to do another read-through to make notes on everything to change or keep, and use that along with all my new stuff to build the plot. For all of this work, I will be using Holly Lisle’s Create a Character Clinic, Create a Culture Clinic, and Create a Plot Clinic. I cannot recommend this books enough — they are out really really cool. I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to use them, for real, and this is it. I want this to work, and give it the best chance it has to succeed. It’s my magnum opus, and I love it dearly. And would love to see it in a bookstore one of these days.
So that’s what’s doing in my world.
Weaver of Words 