Jezaline in all of her glory
Published on Oct 20 2009 | Filed under: Embraced by Darkness
Right now I am working on Jezaline’s story. I am literary reading through and cutting, cutting, cutting and adding, adding, adding as I go. To some extent I am doing this with the eye of an editor, on the other side the adding is with my entire heart as a writer. I have added now more words than I have cut from her story, not much, but a few. It is rightfully so, Jezaline’s story was spars and one dimensional. Interesting things happen – heart wrenching things – but I don’t think I ever gave the reader any reason to give a rats ass about her. She was never my favorite character and it shows.
It always bothered me that she had so little substance. On the other hand she is actually in a far more unique and interesting situation than my other characters even before the book started. Her entire life is changed by a moment in the past when the bad guy in my book (Grim) gives her the power to become a ruler. The bad guy in my book is a prophet and he changes who Jezaline is to completely change the outcome of her future because Grim saw that it would be Jezaline who would finally manage to kill him. He changes her so completely by giving her power that there is absolutely no way she could ever become who she was to be able to kill him.
This is where things go wrong for Grim. In my book another prophet intervenes and manages to get Jezaline to where she was SUPPOSED to be in time. But the problem is the obvious one, Jezaline is not who she should have been, getting her back to where she would have been is simply impossible. She is someone else now and Jezaline winds up doing far greater damage in the long run, even though she does manage to kill Grim. Grim’s influence lasts far on past this book and, in the end, Grim destroys who she was supposed to be and essentially, destroys her. Jezaline goes on to betray the people she had once loved and become a ruler, not of humans, but of Vamepire.
As a person she is strong-willed, raised a horseman on a breeding farm of the gorgeous, black-skinned horses of the desert. She had a very specific moment of her past that I completely failed to elaborate in the book as it is. I knew it was time to bring in her past, to give people a taste of who she was and of the betrayals that led to her choices now. Her father had promised her to a man for a huge price. Essentially sold his own daughter. Jezaline fled into the dunes and there Grim came to her. I spent last night describing this moment in detail. I hope I did it justice. The words did flow.
I was able to integrate a good portion of the old book here and move right along editing, clipping and adding bits and pieces. I move, hopefully seamlessly, between her past and her present to reveal her. I actually feel good about all of this now. Is there doubt? Always… But I feel better about this because I have finally found a place for Jezaline in my interest. I like her and I want to do her justice; that has got to be a step in the right direction. Initially, in the version of the book now I had Jezaline’s betrayal a total secret almost entirely to the readers too. Now I am going to write in every detail of her time with the Vamepire king. I am bringing in a past for this Vamepire too. It is a meeting between them that no prophet or person or thing in my entire book could have foresaw. Just as the king of the Vampire moves in to kill her they both realize they are looking at another being whose life had been violently changed by Grim. The Vampire king feins that he wants to make her his queen and, though he does, he wants to use her first. And this is the beginning of Jezaline’s dip into darkness from which she will not surface.
She does what the king wants her to do and it is to get close to another species in my book, the Draegoone. Essentially, she will be the instrument that unleashes the Vamepire plague upon the world, her betrayal to the human race will be felt for centuries to come. And this is what she does after having been a kind ruler of the human people. Grim’s influence is so dark she is incapable of doing anything else. I hope I can give the meeting between Jezaline and the vampire king enough of a fucked-up scary vibe. We’ll see.
I look forward to the other two main stories of my book with daunted reverence. I am going to have a alot more adding to do for Karalay but I think the majority of Osondrous/Constance’s story will but cut, cut, cut and edit. The writing is the fun part but it’s also the most time consuming so I both loathe and look forward to adding to all of it.
I write in a very clipped up style, so often people ask me how many times I have edited and re-written a piece because they suspect it’s alot. When I tell them, “that’s first draft” I’m usually met with gawking. A good thing? I have no idea but I do now have a good idea for another blog post, it will be called “Cutters” and “Adders” what kind of writer are you?
I will leave this post with one of my all time favorite songs by one of my all time favorite bands:
“The start of a journey is every bit worth it I can’t let you down anymore. The sky is still clearing we’re never afraid and the consequence opens the door. I never stopped trying, I never stopped feeling like family is much more than blood. Don’t go on without me. The piece that I represent compliments each and everyone. Til we die.” Written by Slipknot
