Thoughts #20: A Deeper Issue

3/18/25

Hey y'all!

It's been a little bit since I've written a blog. I've been a bit busy, I'm sorry!

But I just had inspriation strike as I was working on the final chapters of Origins II.

I've stated it before, and I'll say it again. I'm not expecting my books to be perfect, this is still a learning process. Each book helps me learn and grow. I thought I had a lot of basic bases covered when I started writing these books but I learn how false that is every day!

My newest issue: how to ensure my characters are learning the proper lessons!

I'm not trying to write some children's story all about learning morals and ethics, but good character development has characters growing and changing. I believe I have my characters changing, and growing too by extent, but why?

Writing these last chapters I've started to rpocess why Lila is feeling the way she is. It's easy to write morals and learned lessons but sometimes they can come out of nowhere.

In Origins I believe a lot of Lila's growth is done through watching Maya. I planned on Origins II to be a little more about her. And it is, kind of. But the lesson she's saying she's learned isn't hers. So what lesson was she supposed to learn? Perhaps, for now, her position in Ngash is the same. She's the main character, but not the focus. She's recounting the events, but not the focus on the story.

I'm fine with that outcome, but I have to wonder where things went wrong.

Right now she feels like a younger sibling character, learning how to be a better person from her "older siblings". I think that's fine, but why is it happening? It that expressed throughout the story or just in the end.

To me it all pieces together fine, but I'm the author, that feeling is expected. How will readers feel. Will her learning feel disconected? Will it feel confusing?

I'm not too sure. I'm working on editing still too, so I'll keep these thoughts in mind while I edit to make sure things can make sense. Maybe she's not learning any lessons for herself for a while, she just learns them from other people. Perhaps that's the point of her character for now, it does align with Origins so I'm not opposed to it.

Midtown Street

Here's todays concept art: a pretty proper picture of Midtown.

The buildings are supposed to be identical, or close enough. Frankly, this photo does it justice. The district is supposed to be a little cleaner, but for the times this is probably pretty clean. Hard to say if it would look much better than this. Maybe the road goes all the way up to the buildings though. I think only the back yards would have grass space.

That's about all I have to say for the picture. It's not any specific scene as the OG publication of Origins didn't have many scene in Midtown. Pretty well all the Midtown scenes, aka the scenes by Maya's fundraised school and that boutique market, were added in the official release. The only exception is the scene in the alleyway, but that happened on Lila's first day and was actually how she originally met Maya. (In that version she met Shay first in Fountain Square, then seperated and met Maya in Midtown, which made the argument scene in the BB all the more impactful. I like the changes I made though...)

Have a great day!