When I should be sleeping....
Ugh. Got off work this morning at 6:00 completely exhausted. Home and to bed by 7:00 with pleasant classical radio playing softly. And then awake again for no particular reason around 11:15. I need to sleep more. I have a sort-of date this evening, and I have to go to work after, so more than four hours of sleep would be nice. *sigh*
But now my brain is active and I can't seem to sleep. Unfortunately, my brain seems to want to tell me things about the YA fantasy novel I've been working on off and on for about ... 15 years now? I will write this someday! Yes. I've never devoted the time to it that it deserves, and it has evolved a lot since the initial inspiration. I've realised that my notes for it are in a complete mess. I have eleven different files for it. Three of them are labeled "Chapter 1". I need to do some serious organisational work in it at some point.
But in a way, I'm glad I've waited on it. I think it has the potential to be a lot better book now than it would have been if I wrote it ten or even five years ago. I've become a lot more aware of literary tropes, problematic themes, and MarySueishness. There will be feminism. There will be awareness of social issues. There will be characters of colour. There will be lesbians (story has a predominately female cast). There will be no slut-shaming. There will be people who are not thin and conventionally attractive, and they will not be asexual. There may be a trans character. No more than two other characters will express romantic feelings for my protagonist. There might not have been *any* of these things if I had written it in my early 20's.
In short, I want to be a combination of Tamora Pierce, David Levithan, and J. K. Rowling, and write an interesting story with a fun and diverse cast, which also promotes socially-aware, life-affirming messages. Someday.
But now my brain is active and I can't seem to sleep. Unfortunately, my brain seems to want to tell me things about the YA fantasy novel I've been working on off and on for about ... 15 years now? I will write this someday! Yes. I've never devoted the time to it that it deserves, and it has evolved a lot since the initial inspiration. I've realised that my notes for it are in a complete mess. I have eleven different files for it. Three of them are labeled "Chapter 1". I need to do some serious organisational work in it at some point.
But in a way, I'm glad I've waited on it. I think it has the potential to be a lot better book now than it would have been if I wrote it ten or even five years ago. I've become a lot more aware of literary tropes, problematic themes, and MarySueishness. There will be feminism. There will be awareness of social issues. There will be characters of colour. There will be lesbians (story has a predominately female cast). There will be no slut-shaming. There will be people who are not thin and conventionally attractive, and they will not be asexual. There may be a trans character. No more than two other characters will express romantic feelings for my protagonist. There might not have been *any* of these things if I had written it in my early 20's.
In short, I want to be a combination of Tamora Pierce, David Levithan, and J. K. Rowling, and write an interesting story with a fun and diverse cast, which also promotes socially-aware, life-affirming messages. Someday.