Another week has passed by, and to be honest.. They’re flying. We’re a good bit into February and I’m still waving my sparkles around wishing everyone a happy new year. Time ninja’s are a real thing, and they are there when you least expect it. As I’m writing this it’s early in the evening but trust for my curfew to come knocking as soon as I blink twice. However in this week, we have managed to come to a few simple conclusions.
Just because we break apart a couple does not mean that said couple agrees with the change.
This is something we’ve discussed before. Couples we’ve pulled apart like the heartless monsters we are, and hook them up with other people because they would either fit better, or potentially work better in a different place. Sometimes it works in our favour and makes for an even stronger couple, one that is more powerful, and steady, a couple who are a good pillar of our story. Sometimes you’re left with the empty shell of who someone was and it takes a bit of time to rebuild them, only to end back in the same complicated place we were before with them. Only better this time. It is sometimes difficult balancing what we need, versus what the story needs, versus what our people need. Sometimes what we need might not be what the story calls for, and while for the story someone might work better there, it doesn’t mean that they’re automatically going to be happy. I’m sure there’s math in there somewhere!
Just because we’ve scrapped them, it doesn’t mean they’re actually gone.
We have had a few of those, characters that in this new world we didn’t have a place for. Over time they got complacent, wanted a happy ever after, white picket fence, normal stuff. Stuff, that we could not use. We’re at the point where I’m fairly certain that more than half of the characters ever created but scrapped, have all returned back to us and possibly better than ever, undoubtedly waiting for us to catch up to how things should be! – Couldn’t they have told us? Obviously not because that would make it all far too easy! Little by little we are seeing some familiar faces returning, some being met with a groan of ‘pls no’ and some being greeted like meeting your oldest friend again. One of those is a character who has been there from the start, and letting her go in the first place, even if for a good reason, was one of the hardest decisions that I’ve had to make.
Just because they’re chatty, doesn’t mean they’re useful.
This is another one we’ve come to realise over the course of the week. With a big project like this, you can count on a lot of people being involved in it all. Sprawled across 8 realms, include diversity, families, old couples, young couples, the different camps and species that run around in there.. It turns into a big project, with a lot of faces and names. Just because you need the bodies for the filling, and just because someone is chatty, it does not necessarily mean they have anything solid to contribute. Which is what we’re looking for. People that work, that have a role to play in all of this, and even if it’s a minor one, everyone has to play their part.
But it’s a fun experience for us. Watching the pieces of the puzzle slot into place because while we might be writers, I think you’ve gathered by now that we’re definitely not calling the shots here. This is not a defined road from A to Z. This is forever evolving, changing and twisting at every turn it can find if only to throw us for a loop. Just when we think we have it down another piece of information is thrown our way to send us back to the drawing board.. But we love it!
Charlotte Holt
Charlotte and Clara 