New Time Capsule Story Went Awry!

13 June 2018

I started working on a new story today. It was supposed to be an adaptation of a time capsule 'story' I wrote and sent in to an editor. The original assignment was for a list of items in a time capsule, with the backstory behind each item. Who put them in there, why did they pick those items, etc...The inspiration was a MASH episode with a time capsule in it. The way the piece was supposed to work was that another writer would take my time capsule items and write a story set around the time capsule being found and what happens as a result. 

The second part of the assignment was never done, so I pulled back my submission and decided I would try and write the story of the time capsule being found and what it meant to those who found it. But my brain...uh, my brain did not cooperate. 

So, my latest story released has a main character called Black Char. I thought it would be great to have him in this piece as well. He's an explorer, so maybe he finds the time capsule somewhere as he is exploring. Sounds doable, right? 

I sat down to write, and the first item in the time capsule threw me off a bit. I don't want to share what that item is, but it is a little extreme. I thought it would be a good thing to exaggerate the intensity and have the time capsule be found by someone young. Not Black Char then. Maybe his child? I could set the story a bit farther in the timeline. And then I thought it could be at the same time as the other story, which means having something to do Black Char or the other characters in the last story. And something clicked...

I started to write a story about Tarver the Magus and Murg. It flowed out, not fast, but well. Then I started to switch the tense and rewrite again. And then I deleted some of what I wrote and switched it to more showing than telling. The writing got better. 

I'm still working on it, but I feel good about how it is going so far. I don't know where this story will end up, in fact it hasn't even touched upon anything in the time capsule piece. But I can see the way forward for it to be incorporated smoothly. 

We'll see what happens over the next few weeks. Summer is my time to be productive when it comes to writing. Wish me luck.

Picture for today: 
Has nothing to do with my story I'm working on. I like it though.