003] we all have our problems

The main issue I find with being an illustrator and an author is that, while I love writing, drawing always comes first. I will sit down at my computer with every intention of writing a chapter and instead I'll end up in photoshop with my tablet on my lap.

Sometimes, instead of drawing a bunch of dumb fanart to add to my growing collection of dumb fanart, I'll actually try to do something sort of productive and draw my characters. Which is how yesterday I ended up with these doodles of the twins from my novel, Callie and Avery. They come in part of the way through Asa's midquel, and their introduction is so far the only scene I've written for that book. They're two characters that I really enjoy and I think I'll have a lot of fun writing them.

002] to begin with

Starting out, I should say a little about the novel I'm trying to write.

Now, last summer I set out to write a different story. I hit about ten thousand words when the story just got away from me and I couldn't make the main character do anything else to further it along. So I set that one aside and didn't write anything for a while, save for two separate short stories that I started and never finished (noticing a pattern here?).

I recently decided to try again with a different story.

Back in the first semester of my senior year at Pratt, I did a book of four sets of character designs. When I started out, I had already had three stories planned out and I wanted to save one of them for last, so I needed a new story. In a huge stroke of luck, right as I was getting close to the time when I had to start designing these new characters, I dreamed up this story, probably heavily inspired by the fact that I had just read/seen Never Let Me Go.

It follows a group of three characters, Forrest, Maya, and Asa, in a world where a plague of biblical proportions (named the Sickness by those who survived) has killed a number of the population. Each child born following the Sickness is born with a power of some sort, and they're sent to schools so that they can try and use their abilities to help restore the world to what it was before the Sickness hit.

A bunch of things that I won't spoil happen along the way, and eventually Forrest and Maya have to leave the boarding school they're at, which also means leaving Asa behind. The book goes on to follow Forrest and Maya for a while until more stuff happens and eventually they can reunite with their old friend.

Now, I was thinking about this story a while back and realized that wait a minute, Asa's story during the time he's away from Forrest and Maya is just as interesting as the main story I already have planned. So then the midquel was born and now I'm writing two novels at the same time. But that's okay, because I have a large group of characters that I really enjoy and that I hope others will too.

Just for fun, here are my initial character designs for this story. The plotlines have changed a little bit, namely the way groups at the boarding school are handled and Asa's (now lack of) power, but design-wise everyone still pretty much looks the same. I also have included another character to Asa's midquel who doesn't have a design yet. His name is Jeremy.

001] introduction

For those who don't already know who I am, my name is Alexa. I'm a 23-year old illustrator and aspiring-author trying to write my first novel. I decided that starting a blog for my writing adventures would help keep me focused and writing, because unfortunately I always end up losing interest in big projects that I start.

I'm going to use this blog to keep track of my progress, to dive into character development, to collect inspiration and to muse about anything that I might consider relevant at the time.