Yes, I did promise "weekly" blog updates on the progress I'm making in Bounds of Freedom. Instead, I kinda threw those into the Updates section on the front page. That really is what it's there for, anyway. The times I make changes to the site, additions to the blog and podcast, and random updates that don't deserve their own blog post. That's also why I've started archiving everything that's been posted to that section. I just wish I had started archiving those mini-posts a year ago. Oh well.
Also, you might have noticed that recently, I have consistently pushed out monthly episodes of the podcast. Rather, for the last four months, there has been an episode of Thoughts From... added to the feed every month. That's something to celebrate, yes? Now, I just need to offer the same attention to the blog. Good ol' Inspiration's Corner, gettin' some love! Or, at least, some blog posts.
As you may have gathered, from the title of this blog post, and the facts that I'm talking about updates to the blog and my progress in Bounds of Freedom, this will be a blog post regarding my progress with Bounds of Freedom. Well, since you've already figured that out, maybe I don't have to actually write the rest of the blog post. You're sooo intelligent, nearly clairvoyant in your intuition, that I don't need to say a damn thing, do I? DO I?! You make me sick.
Besides, you'd be wrong. Well, not totally. In fact, you'd be almost completely right. And from the updates I've been making to the home page of the site, coupled with the new word-counter, there's not a lot I could say here, anyway. But I do have a little bit to say that hasn't been posted to the front page and you might not have been able to scry with your crystals and viewing-stones. I'd like to talk about how I powered through my latest period of writer's block.
I may have mentioned this before, either in blogland or podcastville, but I kind of got bored with my characters. Not bored per se, but I found them...unidentifiable. I didn't have any characters that I felt like I could connect with on a visceral level. I mean, my main characters were all vampires, and not the moody Stephanie Meyer or hypersexual Anne Rice (or even the relieving comedically Joss Whedon) vampires. I'd like to say they're Bram Stoker vampires (in my mind, the only real vampires), but I know they're not anywhere near that evil/awesome. They're somewhere between Bram Stoker and that one episode of The X-Files. You know, the episode with Luke Wilson. (The one that starts out w/ Skully telling her version of the events, then Mulder telling his version. I haven't seen the series in its entirety, but it's my favorite episode. If/when I watch the entire series -- it's on Netflix streaming, now, so the chances are pretty high -- I'm sure it'll still be in my top five, at least.) So I was left facing a story with characters that I can somewhat care about, but are entangled in plots and intrigue that are, at their cores, completely unrelatable. I couldn't relate to them, anyway. There were no characters that were "caught up" in the larger whirlpool, if you will.
Then came Bryce.
His name will probably change to Bryson before it's done because "Bryce" is too close to "Pryce," another character that I had forgotten about. Oops. Anyway, Bryson was in my original concept for the story (well, the original rewrite to the original concept, because the original concept was something some friends of mine and I came up with in...2004? Way, way back) but he was, at best, a side character. He was barely going to be a plot device. No character, no past, no real motivation, and no reason to keep him in the story. Until now. I realized that he was the PERFECT candidate for the hero in the Hero's Journey. Now, he's not going to usurp Deidre or Cailean as the main character for the story (I know, I know, no one has read it yet. But the first chapter is going to get posted soon, so...well, none of these characters come up in the first chapter. But bear with me), but he's definitely no longer at the back or the sidelines of the story.
I created his past, gave him motivation, and set him up as, I hope, a very strong character, both physically and morally. He'll be the Frodo Baggins or Rand al'Thor or Taran, Assistant Pig-Keeper. He's probably closest to Taran, because while both Frodo and Rand started out as being two small people pushed forward by the waves of the story, by the end, they were directing a large part of those waves themselves. Taran...never could seem to get a handle on his situation. He was able to plan his reactions and coordinate himself so he was, at times, not caught off-guard, but never was he controlling the events from the front, nor was he silently guiding them from behind. He was always right in the middle, being pushed along at someone else's whim. That's Bryson, and he's someone for whom we can all root (wow, that sounds terrible; try "we can all root for him"). I think, in the end, if Cailean kills Deidre and exacts vampirical vengeance, or if Deidre stops Cailean and defeats him or, worst-cast scenario, turns him to fight at her side, no one will really care. But if Bryson dies, well, that would truly be tragic. He's the "everyman" that my story was missing.
And now, I'm once again excited to tell my story. I should be writing. (link)
