THE Book

My journey to Constance Moore has been one hell of a roller-coaster ride, the usual ups, downs and twists of course; but toss in some loops and a few dead drops with fire and water blasting you in the face and you’ll get a better idea of the struggle and triumphs. 😊

It started when I was 12 years old and not a very accomplished writer (didn’t even understand what plot was). I was working on a story I had titled ‘R.E.B.E.L.S’ – a sad attempt at a magical tale with a handful of characters I had no real connection with. After becoming bored I took a break and started watching X-Men, needless to say it inspired my next writing excursion; this one titled ‘Powers 10’ – a broken and desolate world with mutant like abilities, underground bunker mazes and a lot of characters, one of which I really liked, Sinric or Sin for short. But even with a beloved character I still couldn’t figure out what I was doing with the story… so I stopped.

Fast forward a few years and I’m 14, a friend and I were hanging out and she finds my old notebooks with these stories patiently awaiting rediscovery. And believe me when I say they were worse than I remembered, but a few years and some creative writing classes can work wonders on a dedicated hand. She asked why I had stopped working on them and was surprised that I was simply bored with them. Apparently, she thought there was something to the characters, the world and maybe even a possible plot between the two haphazard notebooks. Then she suggested something that would forever change my life – “Why not combine them?”

Uh, say what? Combine two awful, plotless stories together? Why?!

She offhandedly reminded me that I had kept them, there must have been a reason when I had gotten rid of so many other half-baked ideas pre and post these two. She had a point there.

For about a month I pondered the possibility of combining to vastly different worlds, characters and overall ideas (thankfully I still had most of the notes). In the end I scrapped the worlds, I fused the characters and I began to plot. I built a story around an idea (something I don’t usually do – I’m a heavy believer in character driven stories, at least for me). The idea: Two dominant species with vastly different abilities – Magic and Mutant – coexisting in one world.

By the time I started writing I was 15 and I was immediately struggling. How did the laws of the world work? Who was my main character going to be and why? What type of conflict would fit best, political, social, economical, maybe an epidemic that only effected one species? What kind of creatures were there? What level of technology were they at? What were the religions? And so on.

I started reading specific books that would help me strengthen certain aspects of my writing abilities, The Book of Flying for world building, Harry Potter for dialog and magical understanding, Fahrenheit 451 for alternate possibilities and conflicts, etc. But it wasn’t until I started writing, just writing that I began to find my way. I stopped worrying about everything being figured out and just found ways to enjoy it.

I had 8 main characters (believe me I know how insane this is), but one captured my attention like Sinric had from before. This character’s name was Rave Rivine – she was everything I wanted to be. I made her strong, powerful, a badass bitch with a calm exterior that screamed avoidance. She was everything I wanted to be but didn’t have the confidence to exude. (I was 16 by this time, sophomore year of high school – dealing with more than just fitting in at school).

6 years later I’m 21 years old and still writing the same story. At this point however I have gone through some real-life experiences that have changed my writing to dark and troubling. I used it more as a crutch to avoid life rather than an outlet of creativity. Making a decision with God’s mallet of a ‘still small voice’ (I have a hard head) I finally realized it was time to step back and take a break. I got rid of EVERYTHING. All my notes, all my chapters and pictures. I had completed the first book, twice; and was nearly half way through the second book when I made the decision that honestly saved my life. I was going to stop writing, I needed to start living again.

For 4 years I did just that. I refocused my attention on living a godly life and figuring out what I was going to do with the rest of my existence. For those of you keeping track I’m 25 at this point and I was FINALLY moving out of my parent’s house for the last time. I got a job in Ohio working for the ministry I had grown up with and was excited about my next steps. But in the back of my mind I had a story burning to be rediscovered. I was nervous about picking it back up, but a year prior I had started writing again, nothing serious just a few poems and character sheets. I thought what the hell, I should just go for it. I knew who I was, and I was confident in my ability to pull away if I needed to – I had done it before. So, I went for it.

I started from scratch, with only my memory to pull up to help me rebuild the story I had destroyed four years prior. I started slow building the characters, then working through their motives, and eventually I got to the plot. I wrote and rewrote the first few chapters and I couldn’t get it right. It was dull and more of a history lesson than a story. It was around this time that I finally read a book many of my friends had told me I would enjoy, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. I learned about Orson and how he had a similar problem when writing Speaker for the Dead – the book that follows Ender’s Game but was in fact started before Ender’s Game. He explained that as he struggled to write Speaker for the Dead he felt like he was droning on about the history of Ender (the main character), so he decided to write Ender’s Game first.

That is exactly what I decided to do. I needed a book to explain the world, or rather the species of the Elementals (Mutants from a previous draft – a lot has changed from one year to the next, let alone in 4 years) and their place in the world. So, 2 thousand years and some change before Rave Rivine was alive there was Constance Moore – the first of her kind. A character of unique disposition and abilities who has never experienced the world she was born into, suddenly thrust beyond her Underground home and into the light. She inspires me, and her journey is just as crazy as mine has been in getting to hers.

 I hope you are just as inspired and excited to delve into the world of the Elementals as seen through Constance Moore’s eyes.