I've just been crying my way through the special features on the final Harry Potter film (yes I'm a geeky emotional girl. Sue me!) and as per usual when I think of the magnificence of these stories I get to thinking about Jo Rowling, how she works and her immense talent, tenacity and imagination. It also got me thinking about how she'd written EXACTLY the kind of story I would want to write, had I one tenth of her imagination.
Jo's world building has been so immense that she knows everything about her characters and the world they live in. Now I don't think, actually I KNOW I don't have the faintest idea of where to begin to create a world with that depth, but I do like the idea of the secret world hiding in plain sight (a la Harry Potter and Stephanie Meyer's Twilight) as these are places you can escape to, but you also feel could be just around the corner. My first story 'Feral' incorporates the idea of 'others' living amongst us incognito, and when I decided I was going to give this writing lark a go, it was always with a paranormal edge (Joss Whedon and Buffy have a lot to answer for!). Unfortunately, coming up with original ideas and characters has been slightly less easy, as you know anything with witchcraft is going to be likened to Harry, and anything with vamps is going to be... well let's just say Twilight isn't the only one in that parade!
To date my writing attempts have been limited to romance, for no other reason than, it's what I know! I know about love, I've been in love a few times, all of whom were very good boys/men. I am fortunate not to have a horror story or a bad break up. I also know attraction in it's many guises, and that physical attraction won't necessarily relay to an emotional or mental connection. I know these things so I attempt to write about them.
The question is do I stick to what I know (and don't read nearly enough of), or do I get thinking and make that leap to fantasy/paranormal Teen/YA (which I read more of), but is definitely a saturated market at the moment?! So 'Who am I?' who the hell knows, but I'm having fun finding out!
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