Hopefully done with tangents (cont).

Where was I? Ah, I had just finished on the first of my two very large tangents from my original idea. Let's recap, shall we?

Outline:
Idea: Long length stories (leading somewhere)
Tangent 1: Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare
Tangent 2: Twilight and vampires
Conclusion: The Abandoned! And that I really need to contain myself when typing, I do.

We all on the same page now? That page being my blog page? (giggle, slaps knee) Oh fine, I apologize for that awful pun.

So, anyway, I wrote a few scenes from something called The Abandoned in my head. I was taking what I liked about the "institute" idea from Cassandra Clare's books, but trying to make it more like X-Men where supernatural creatures go to learn supernatural things, that is how to be the best werewolf they can be, or whatever. But in those days, the days of private tutors and privilege, there is no way upperclass vampires would send their... well, whatever they are... to school. And werewolves would have been too into their pack. Unless, of course, a vampire or werewolf was abandoned at creation. Maybe it was an accident. Maybe their sire was killed. Maybe they were exiled.

It was actually more of a steampunk conversion of a high school vampire/werewolf/mermaid, etc idea that was a conversion of a sci fi urban fantasy involving those same elements. Kind of a long chain. So I thought about it, and figured I liked the modern high school version better than the steampunk one, so I just left it. It was just an idea after all. But David said he rather preferred the steampunk version.

For some reason I was thinking on it recently, I'm not sure why. The characters were more personal than I had made the other versions, contained more life. Elijah was like William from Infernal Devices (my favorite character), but as with everything else, whenever I insert a character, they adapt to the story and change. Elijah doesn't have William's backstory, just his cocky wit (which was supposed to be alienating in William's case, but I thought it was more on the entertaining side), so he ends up much more self-assured than William. And much more into clothes, as he is a vampire. Patrick was just Elijah's sidekick, as William had a partner, but I wasn't as much a fan of him. So Patrick became serious to Elijah's wit. And with his seriousness, he developed a quiet, unemotional nature and a keen eye for seeing things and collecting information others didn't think he knew about. And Keelin is just what I figured a headstrong female orphaned werewolf would be like. For all her impetuousness, though, she knows she is different and that makes her cautious, more than I originally thought. But since she is strong and somewhat self-assured, she goes into everything with an idea of simply barreling through it.

I reread what I had written again recently. This usually somewhat embarrasses me, as I am far more capable of recognizing good work than I am of producing it. But, the little fixes aside, I found myself wishing I had written more of the story, simply so I could read it. I had a host of unanswered questions and found myself pondering them. And then, I figured, I needed to write. If I spent too much time thinking, "does this scene advance the plot," "what are the answers to all the questions," and "what is the map to this building," I would never write. Not to say that plotting and planning are bad things, but I honestly don't consider myself to be at the stage of constructing a full actual book. And ideation is practice, of a sort.

So I thought about it, and wrote a few more scenes. If it ever gets published (doubtful), it will have to be trimmed and edited a lot by the time I'm done. But that's not the point.

And now, I've been thinking on the questions. Occasionally, plot ideas get added, but they rarely answer questions, simply create more of them. Here are a few I have right now:

Why is the Schoolmaster setting Keelin up?
If Elijah is privileged because he is not actually abandoned, then what is the point of his presence at the institute?
Why was Patrick made and abandoned?
What is Chelsea's ulterior motive?
What does she hope to gain from him?
How will Keelin deal with the death of her sponsor?
How will Keelin deal with him (not trying to be elusive, I simply haven't named him yet)?
His he actually a good man or actually a bad one?
Why was the Skyrider kicked out of his clans?
What is the Skyrider culture?
How does the Skyrider justify bringing death? How does he kill?

And honestly, most of these don't have answers I know yet. I wrote it like I knew why the Schoolmaster was setting her up and why Patrick was abandoned, but I honestly cannot remember the answers, cannot remember if I ever knew or was merely putting in details I figured I'd fill out later.

But all the same, it's rather fun to have a project. Then little tidbits can come in and open up story avenues for you, things you didn't think of before.

However, if you know the answers to these questions, tell me quick!