Current mood:	weird
Entry tags:	olimpia valley

Researching
I thought I'd have to do a lot of research for my rehash of the Olimpia Valley novels (yes, I've finally made a decision: they'll be a series of books not just one novel). I started looking round the 'net first, just to get a feel for things, to see if my ideas would work. I got about fifty pages worth of material and within ten minutes had deleted it all. It just wasn't going to work. Too much fact, too little scope. When writing fantasy - be it olde-worlde fantasy like Soul Mates, or dark-future fantasy like Olimpia Valley - you need some room to move, to make it a fantasy story. I do like my facts and most of my stories are littered with facts as well as fiction but while doing my research I realised the facts would just undo all the fantasy.

So one ideas has been scrapped. Not to worry because I think the idea that's replaced it is much, much better because it means I can make it all up - what it actually is and all the consequences and side-effects, which gives me so much room to manoeuvre and do what I do best: fiction.

I came to realise that the "research" I'd been do desperate to get done would in fact just be me actually sitting down and writing out the history of this dark-future world I'd made. I know I've written three novels set in the world but the history has always been a little blurred and biased (the way it is in real life). But for me, the writer, I had to know all the facts, from both sides. So last week I sat down and wrote out the history of Olimpia Valley. That led onto the state of the world, the living conditions and the two opposing forces.

At the moment I'm working on the characters - reacquainting myself with them, learning their stories and finding out what growth they'll find in this first book. Then I'll be moving onto the big one: the main story.