What would you do if everything you were taught
about your home planet was a lie?
What would you do if you were Left Behind?
How These Books Come To Be
It starts out as nothing more than a
passing thought. A random passing thought. Something kind of weird, kind of
strange and farfetched, like what if those little green men from outer space
are actually our long lost relatives? The wheels start turning. Ideas burst out
of nowhere. What about an alien story told by an alien? A teenage alien who
lives underground on a squalid planet destroyed by greed long before he was
born!
Somehow what was just a thought evolves until the premise can support a
novel. Or in this case, a trilogy. (Read the first book in the Left
Behind Trilogy on Story Cartel in exchange for an honest review.) But that's just the beginning. And I've
got half a dozen of these beginnings waiting in the wings, waiting their turn. Not
nicely, either. They claw and scratch, some more than others, and demand to be
let out. While they're waiting each idea gets its own brainstorming notebook, a
composition book where I free write and also capture any more random thoughts
related to the idea. The brainstorming chart is probably the greatest thing I
learned in K-12 so I use it a lot to expand the setting and plot further.
Characters,
on the other hand, develop mostly in free writing. That's where they shine
through, become more than a vague shadow at the back of my mind. That is where
they begin to steer the plot. That is where they prove that they are their own
person and I cannot tell them what to do. Like Endirion, the thirteen year old
alien protagonist in The Forbidden Voyage. I really wanted him to be tougher. A
hero! But no. No, he had to turn out to be an average kid instead. And the
school bully I wanted to hate? Well, I guess he just knew too much and it was
eating him up inside, because he turned out to be the gallant one.
In my world a story could be remanded to
those lined, handwritten pages for months, even years. Meanwhile I'm writing
another book that started out the same way, daydreaming about quitting my job
to write full time, and taking mini holidays in VanCity, BC to recharge my
muse. The hardest part is sticking to one novel with the pile of different
colored composition books calling my name.
The second hardest part is trying to put
the story back together after I've written it. Since lot of the free writing
also ends up in the final product, acting as the springboard for a scene, or a
chapter, sometimes for the whole novel, the story itself is often written out
of order. There is a method to this madness and I do end up with a complete
draft. It just has to be put in order when it is done. Of the three novels I
have completed so far, The Forbidden Voyage experienced the least of this.
While I wrote a whole second part, a prologue, and an epilogue that were
removed and saved for the second book, for the most part Left Behind Book One was
written in a much more linear manner than my other two books. While a few
switcheroos were definitely needed it's not like the beginning and ending
chapters flopped around and traded places over and over.
Maybe this means I'm growing as a
writer? Maybe, but more likely it just reflects the different genres. A middle
grade dystopian sci fi is certainly easier to write from beginning to end than
a fictional treatise on mental illness or a tragic comedy about suicide by
hitman. Either way the organized mess that comes out of my process seems to
work. Ultimately, however, that's for the reader to judge and I really want to
hear what you think. From now until December 5th you can download Left
Behind Book One: The Forbidden Voyage for FREE from Story Cartel.
Happy reading!
R. Anne Polcastro
# # #
Riya Anne Polcastro wrote her first book when she was five years old. It was only twenty some words long, typed up by her kindergarten teacher, and bound with construction paper and yarn . . . but it was the beginning of a dream that would later eat at the grown up her until she finally gave in and let the stories pour out. She was born and mostly raised in the Pacific Northwest. When she wasn’t there, she was growing up on the other side of the Mexican border, which is why she learned to read and write in Spanish first (not that she can speak anything but English very well, and even that can be a challenge early in the morning). And while it was hard to love the wetness again after the desert, Polcastro still hails from the rain infested northwest where she lives with her two kids and their family dog. Find out more at her website and find her on Twitter @RAPolcastro
About the Author
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