Maturing My Books

I've had a burst of motivation for writing since publishing Scripted. Honestly, publishing a novel has probably made me more excited about working on my books than almost anything else has.

Way back in high school, I started writing a sci-fi/fantasy trilogy. It took me about four years just to finish the first volume, and I'm not even sure how long the second took since I took a break from it for several years in college. I'm still working on the third. My writing style, some of the plot, and the background of some characters have all changed since I started writing that first book. I decided last year that I wanted to go back to the first book and update everything so the first, second and third books were more cohesive, and so I could feel semi-okay with having someone read it to give me feedback.

Besides having to completely rework a few chapters to fit with the plot changes I made later on in the trilogy, the biggest problem I've come across is dialogue. My main character is a teenager, and I wrote the first book while I was a teenager, so you would think that she would talk like a teenager. She doesn't. She talks like some wizened old war veteran. Which, given her age, actually makes her sound very conceited, not to mention unrelatable.

So, ironically, in trying to make my high school writing more mature, I am making my main character sound less mature. But I find myself liking her much better. She actually has a personality. I think originally, I wanted her to be this strong heroine that girls could look up to. Now, I still think you can look up to her, but you can also relate with her.

Aw, my book is growing up.
"Growing Up" by Lomasi_ is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0