I’m on the writing spectrum some where in between a pantser and a plotter. I like have things planned out, but I also like to see where the flow of words will go naturally. When I wrote the short story introducing Gari and Torthal, I pantsed. When I started a follow up story, expanding on that introduction, I tried to pants it again, but failed. So now I’m plotting out his next series of adventures.
So here I am, writing a new story bible, filling in the blanks I left, and following an outline. Gari has a bigger story to tell (or show) than I expected. One that is appropriate for the times we are living through. Although he is as far from those events and ideas as possible, the world seen through his eyes will be hauntingly familiar. Gari examines prejudice, fear of change, and what it means to be human. Heady ideas indeed!
I’ve also expanded my ideas for Torthal. The kernel was already there in, “Gari and the Pox”. Now I have a deeper purpose behind how I approach this strange new world, and the distant civilization it represents. The world of Torthal will be a character in Gari’s story as much as any person he encounters.
But my revision of the second installment is where my mind is right now. I want to bring the world to life around Gari, and my first attempt fell far short of that. The great thing about words on the page is that they can be rewritten, deleted, or replaced with new words. So that is what I’ll be doing for a while, rewriting for Gari’s sake.