When an artist sits down in front of a canvas, there are times they don’t even have to plan out the picture with a pencil before picking up a brush. Their mind, the medium, and the canvas are all so in tune, in what seems as almost no time at all the picture is complete and you step back, confused at how you got where you are. That’s how writing often feels for me.
So, if we rewind to April 2015, I woke up sometime amongst the witching hour and this vivid dream returned to mind. There was a girl, who was running toward her college professor at night and there was this feeling of trust she had in him, although it was clear this was one of their first times meeting. He opened his arms to her and she sobbed against him as he pressed his head against her forehead. I distinctly remember him saying, “Don’t worry, I won’t ever let anything happen to you.” And, this white light filling the view around them. That’s when I woke up.
I didn’t jump up at three in the morning and start writing, it actually took me a few days to get even the dream down onto paper, well Google Docs. One night while my husband and I were getting ready for bed, my anxiety grew strong and I picked up a book to read. I don’t think I actually comprehended anything I read that night, my mind was in turmoil on one side and replaying that dream on the other.
It was probably 11:30p.m. and my husband had gone to sleep, but anxiety kept me awake so I turned to my phone, pulled up Google Docs, and started writing. For days, once my husband fell asleep and the anxiety rose, I would sit up and type my story on my iPhone. After about 60 pages, I realized something was missing, it didn’t have the white light, but I also didn’t know, at the time, what that was.
I kept writing because it was my release. However, one rainy Saturday, I started doing research about light. Light that lead to fire that lead to a Phoenix, which lead to Fawkes from Harry Potter, but I didn’t go there… From a Phoenix I started pulling out everything from Ancient Greek Mythology to symbols of numbers and names.
From the research, I decided Jane and Vincent were destined to fulfill a great work, but one they forgot because they had been reborn. And, from there came the flashes and their previous lives. I started pulling all of my research into the basic premise of my novel, adding pieces into flashes and Jane and Vincent’s current lives so that their knowledge of what’s to come would build as their relationship built.
Once I got through the first book, I knew there was a second and I knew a huge portion of it would have to do with Eden. Because everything in the world has an opposite, even if that opposite defies Earth’s laws, somewhere in the universe it exists.
I knew if there were demons, then there were angels. If there were demons then there was Hell. If there were angels, then a heavenly paradox also had to exist. Good and Bad.
Writing book 2 was a little easier, I had a general outline and I had decided which book each flash needed to go into, but I did’t come up with a formal outline until book 3. In book 2, I still wasn’t exactly sure where my story was headed, don’t get me wrong – I had an idea, but not all the connected dots.
Book 2, I feel, is a little darker. It was written when my anxiety was through the roof and I felt in the dark, too. By not bounding myself to a formal outline, I gave myself permission to write freely and creatively, letting ideas spill out when I felt they needed to.
Also, writing the three books back to back gave me the opportunity to make sure all of my t’s were crossed and my i’s dotted. I was telling the story of so many lives, that were intertwined and even brining in pieces of life lived before Jane even came to Earth, so I wanted to make sure there weren’t any plot holes – which since I’m still currently writing book 3, there might be.
So far, I’ve just let a handful of people into Jane and Vincent’s world to help me improve the story, but I know the characters have a voice and a story that must be heard.
So, that’s basically how things happened. Like I said, I’m not done with Jane and Vincent. In fact, I think even past the third book they will have more to say, but that’s a story for another time.
If you want to learn more about how I’ve developed my short stories you can read about that process here.
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Dereana Murcia 