Haunted By My Book

It should have been a ghost story, it behaves like something haunted. But in reality it is only a few pages of typed text and a hand-written outline.
Over ten years ago, when I was playing a lot of role playing fantasy computer games (RPGs) and reading just as many fantasy novels, the idea occurred to me that I should write a book. I have a good imagination! I like to write! I could do this. I doesn't look hard. So I thought at the time.

So I poured myself into my new project. Writing my story...pondering laboriously over prose. And it was intense! I couldn't believe what it took to write those pages. At about page twenty I quit. I put it away. No one in my family would even look at it. I didn't know if it was good or bad and I felt kind of stupid writing a fantasy novel when other people I knew were writing about Economics and political upheavals in Eastern Europe. I put my little notebook with its outline and maps and character descriptions on a shelf. I put my book-writing days behind me.
Or so I thought.

That story has never left my mind. The book would not let go. It didn't want to die. I found myself constantly thinking about it. How to make more sense of the plot...and where was I going with this story? What was this history behind it? How would it end? How could I make it more my story and not simply a reflection of the books I had been reading at the time? That ten years of distancing myself from my book has probably been a good thing for both of us. I pulled it up and read it the other day. I still like what I wrote. This isn't trying to be literary genius, but it is good reading and fun. I looked at my outline and realized I had gone further with it than I remembered. There was a pretty good story in there trying to come out. But it needed me to do it...to do the work in setting it free.

Some of my ideas had changed over the years and I think for the better. It is really my story now and I see where it is going. I started typing the other night...a prequel, mostly for my own reference, that sets the stage better for the tale I had begun to tell before. This story does not take place on Earth. I started doing research and building a solid base for my world and the things that are living in it. It was fun to find myself creating and naming flora and fauna for this place...a calendar... continents ...mountains and seas.

I need to build this framework and be sure it is sound in the interest of consistency when I am doing my actual writing. References and descriptions in the context of the story may be fleeting, but they need to make sense and be consistent with what has been described before and what will be described later on. I may even draw pictures of things...insects, animals and plants so I have a good picture of what I am referring to when I write. I cannot rely on what is familiar. That is the fun of Fantasy writing, but also the difficulty. A solid foundation needs to be laid first.

I had thought of taking a writing class to get me focused back on my book. But for now, I don't think I will. It isn't that I don't need help or guidance. But I am inclined to just bumble along and see what comes of this endeavor. This won't begin to get the book out of my thoughts, I am sure it will be there even more. But if I am steadily working on it I can consider it as less of a haunting and more of a creative process.