What I'm writing now

I always love those first few words of a story that get written down. I wrote about three paragraphs of something new in January, and all of a sudden a story was born. I knew the basic concept but was surprised with what I wrote those first few paragraphs. It added layers to the story I hadn't originally thought of. I'm about 60,000 words into the first draft and it is a big tousled mess, let me tell you. I'm at the terrible-awful-no-good part and today I wrote this for a scene:

[he comes; with mera maybe? escalate conflict. build to person 3]

Um, that's not a scene. ;)

I need to do a read through. I've done this before with first drafts where I forgot what came before or I get stalled and even though the story is far from complete - it has no ending, there are huge gaps in the middle, and it's mostly incomplete scenes - it helps for me to read it all so I can figure out where the heck this story is going and what it's about. Cause it changes as I write it, and often enough I don't know what I want to say until I've already said it, and I have to remind myself of what's already there.

Anyways, wanted to share a bit about this story. It's another YA fantasy. I think I love writing fantasy because you can make up your own rules. Who knew I was such a rebel?

My main character is Gretta. I haven't gone into detail about Gretta. She has dark hair and is average. No ninja skills, archery ability, assassin qualities or smoking hot body on her. Just a girl with brown hair. I imagine her to look somewhat like this:

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I love writing drafts and getting to know characters as I write them. Gretta is always surprising me. She's a lot sassier and sarcastic than I thought. But she's so vulnerable. So in tune with her own grief and wounds that she wraps anger around her heart like a band-aid, trying to keep the hurt from spilling out. Gretta is a dyer - colors are her world. Because of her job dyeing, her hands carry stains of her work and look like this.

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But the colors on her fingers hide Gretta's secret. One she would rather die than let show. And one on which the entire plot of the book is based.

Gretta lives in the capital city of her kingdom, which in my head looks something like this:

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This kingdom is ruled by a very evil King (of course), who has ruined his kingdom with war and whose greed knows no bounds. He is after Gretta because of her secret, and she avoids capture at all costs. She knows the King's evil all too well. 

But she runs into a King's Guard one day who is not loyal to the King. 

Cue Ward. 

Ward is 'fluffy'. I don't know what it is with YA books painting all the girls as smoking hot and all the guys with a freaking six pack, but no. That is not what you are going to see here. Ward is a bit chubby But adorable. Of course, Gretta hates him with a blinding fury at first. But he gets to her. Or does she get to him? Gosh, I can't remember ;)  Imagine Ward like this:

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Um, yes, Ward is stinkin' adorable. But he's not the cutest character in my book. He is solidly beaten by someone else.

All sorts of terrible no good awfulness happen in the book. Things inspired by stuff like this:

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This book has taken a much darker tone than I expected. Not sure if that's something I want to keep or not. But I love the premise. I love Gretta's secret, and I love her story. It's one of hope. Of shedding guilt. Of finding no shame in fear. And about the glory of finding a safe place to let your hurt out.

Gretta is becoming more and more dear to me. I can't wait for you to meet her!