“Life finds a way”

Shuffling people around and you don’t expect it to have much of an impact.  Or at least, that’s what Charlotte and I somehow keep fooling ourselves with.  If we move person x to family y then what’s the worst that can happen?  We get a fully functioning family and character that’s more fleshed out and raring to go?  That’s true, absolutely true but … what I don’t think either of us banked in is quite how chatty it would make them.  That along with these fleshed out characters we’ll get back stories and current stories and stories that blow our minds … 

But that’s not a bad thing.  Well, not a bad thing unless you count our slowly dwindling sanity as we try to keep track of all of the things!  In fact, it’s a good thing it means that we’re on the right path, that everything is slotting into place and that not only do we now have a final storyline that we can use … but also characters to help us reach the end of it. 

Our creativity has had a bit of a boost, putting all of those things into place and suddenly we can see it.  This project that we’ve created and nurtured over the years has finally got the life that we’ve so desperately wanted to see flow through it.  There have been times when we’ve both wondered If this point would ever come … and I for one am so glad that we never gave up, but that we kept on fighting.   

As Ian Malcom says in the Jurassic Park franchise ‘life finds a way’ and whether you’re talking about dinosaurs or projects like this it’s so fundamentally true.  The life that’s been breathed into this story, the way it’s suddenly grown a pulse of its own just goes to show that life does find a way.  And, as Charlotte and I are finding out … nor can it be contained.  Not when dealing with our characters at least.  They have their stories, their lives and my word are they making sure we know about it! 

We have a great problem now.  We’re not at the point where we’re struggling to find the story, where we’re pulling blood out of the stone … but where we have too much story.  Where our characters are too chatty and where we have too much information.  It means that there is going to be a lot left on the cutting room floor as we edit, but it’s worth it.  Worth it to know that all of these snippets of information, all of these individual stories have helped create this … and who knows, maybe one day these characters will see their own anthology being built. 

But for now, we’re happy focusing on the one story … we have our hands full with that before we start branching out!  So, today’s another day where we’re building bridges … and seeing which characters we can link up … wish us and our sanity luck! 

~Clara