Birth of a Novel - Part 3

This is the ninth entry in my Birth of a Novel series of posts, where I talk about the development of my new YA urban fantasy.

Let me start off by saying this was the first time I've written anything bordering on romantic. I've always been a "tension+action=plot with the occasional quiet interlude to let the reader breathe" sort of writer. But there I was, creating some teenage romance. Before anyone gets too excited (or horrified), it's nothing too squishy or explicit. Surprisingly, I knew exactly what I wanted and was able to pull it off. It was slow going, mind you, because I kept refining it. Normally, I let the words spill from my brain as they may and worry about cleaning it up later. The problem was that the muscle pumping behind my ribs was the real driving force for much of this chapter and the ol' noggin organ wasn't in sync. Hence the extra tweaking.

There were a couple things that made writing this scene quite fun. First off, Zydeco is really conflicted about the whole thing. It makes him extremely happy, but it also makes him think he's rejecting his past. As you might imagine, he's "all frigged up" inside, but to his credit, he's not acting that way.  Secondly, and most important to yours truly, I love these two characters, the other of which is Tameina. I feel like I know them and I am totally rooting for them. More so, because I know what terrible things I'll be doing to them as the book progresses. *evil grin*  So, it was unbelievably important for me to make these scenes very sweet. I tend to be more mechanical and less creative in my second and third drafts, so I was afraid to leave this stuff till then.

Okay, so where does that leave me? Ah, yes. The bad guy comes out in the open, more or less, and I dedicate about four pages to a preliminary good vs. evil stand-off. In business terms, it's the pre-meeting. You know the kind - it's like when Superman first meets Lex Luthor. It's not really "on" yet, if you catch my drift. I hope I built some "mood" suspense leading up to this meeting. Naturally, I'll wind up ripping it all out in later revisions, but for now it stays. :-)

Oh, and I have one simile I'm seriously worried about. I like it, but we'll see if anyone else does. I'm not sharing it here, though. *sticks tongue out*

What am I sharing? This bit.

“Why are you smiling?” I asked.

“Am I?” Her glasses reflected the green traffic light at the corner, and here, with the taxicabs zooming in and out of traffic, carrying fairs to their destination, it seemed ridiculous to think of her as anything more than a girl from school, a pretty, human girl who, along with Blaine, was my best friend in this world. And what she’d shown me in the library? Perhaps she has something, some ability, some kind of supernatural talent. Whatever it is, it doesn’t really matter to me. It is beyond hypocritical for we Mythos to doubt the unknown.

She gazed down at the fancy dinner I had provided for us, the corners of her mouth still raised upward. “I guess I’m just happy right now.”

On to the next chapter!!!!

To see what I thought about the last chapter, slide on back to the previous entry if you like.