Without a Net

Without a Net, On the Net:

The Writing of Catalyst in the Crucible

WARNING: Contains spoilers for Catalyst in the Crucible. Read the story first before you continue!

Confession time: I didn't like Yvonne at first, and that's why I killed her.

It all began while I was writing To Thine Own Self Be True. To add some romance to the story, I had Paul be madly but secretively in love with a beautiful but unobtainable girl, Yvonne. Since she also lived on the Sagan, I had to have a reason she was unobtainable. In the first drafts, Yvonne was a snob and looked down on Paul. (I'm still not exactly sure why she felt superior to him.) Later on, as I was doing research on John Lennon's murderer, I decided religion might be a way for Paul to convince him to spare John. The key was a cross John wore. Since Paul's parents aren't religious themselves, he had to get the cross from someone else. Presto, Yvonne became a cross-wearing "Fundie" who didn't believe in premarital sex. Now she had a real reason to dislike Paul -- he was too wild for her conservative views. Her views evolve over the course of To Thine Own Self Be True, and eventually she rejected her conservative religion and fell in love with Paul. But I still disliked her. Paul, unfortunately, was stuck on her, and the only way he could be separated from her was by death. It would pain him tremendously, but it would drive him on to his greatest accomplishment--the colony on Jovonne, a second home for humanity after Terran civilization collapses.

That was the seed for Catalyst in the Crucible. As I continued writing To Thine Own Self Be True, I imagined what effect Yvonne's death would have on Paul, and I foreshadowed in that story Sam's revenge on Paul. I also came up with other plot threads--Cass's loss of self-confidence, Rose counseling Paul and finding romance with his grandfather, and Paul's own forbidden romance with Julia. Ollie came about because I thought an artificial intelligence would be useful on Jovonne. An AI capable of controlling other machinery would compensate for the lack of "human power" available in a small colony. (This is even more important since I don't want Jovonne to lose a lot of technology--they probably won't be able to do everything they could do on Earth, but I don't want them sinking to a medieval or even 19th century level.) I didn't want him to be created just for Jovonne, though, so I gave Scott another reason to create Ollie--to help in the search for Sam's nephew Nathan, himself a computer whiz. Ollie was also useful as a delaying device: the difficulties involved in creating an AI and obtaining his freedom let me push off Paul's confrontation with Nathan and the escaped Sam until he'd recovered emotionally from losing Yvonne.

I started writing this story two years ago. Rather than wait for a final draft, I decided to post each chapter as I finished it. There were two reasons for this: the website and for writing experience. Although I still haven't sold any stories professionally, I wanted to set up a website with my name as the address so it would be in place if/when I sell something. (I figured it was better to do it now, while I'm still unknown, before someone "cybersquatted" on my name the way someone did to my late mentor. She told me other professional writers were also victims of cybersquatting.) If I was going to have my own website, I needed to have unique material on it, not just the stories and poems that had already appeared in Rational Magic and Rooftop Sessions. I also knew two other Beatles fan fiction writers who were or had posted stories while they were in progress: Aviva Rothschild and With Strings Attached and Tina Kukla's stories (The Beatles: Live at 12 Cold Creek Street and the sequel Days in the Life) on (or formerly on) her website. I decided to try writing this story "live" to see how it went.

Writing "live," so to speak, is one of those activities even professionals shouldn't attempt to try at home. Although I also wrote other stories during the last two years, I felt pressured to focus on this story so I could update it regularly. I write almost every day, but it was still hard meeting the self-imposed deadlines. It's also harder to revise the entire story this way. There are subplots I started that never went anywhere, and I haven't had the chance to take them out. For instance, when I was plotting this story in my head, I thought "Auntie Anna," the woman who runs a diner close to Paul's theater, would become a mother substitute for him. That never happened when I was actually writing the story. A similar thing happened with Kerissa, Rafe's first girlfriend. I originally thought they'd get married, but as the story progressed, they just didn't seem to have enough in common to keep the relationship going. (Characters are funny that way; sometimes they get minds of their own. ;) ) There are several other subplots I don't know if I want to keep in the story, and a couple of subplots that I should have started earlier in the story. There are even a couple of places where I made mistakes with the science. So, despite having written over 200,000 words, I'm still not done with story.

If I'm not done, what comes next? First of all, I need to take a long break from this story, at least four to six months, so I can look at it with a fresh mind. I'll probably kill a forest and print out the entire thing so it's easier to read. Then I can go through it and start condensing/revising it. I was originally planning to leave the first draft up in an archive section, post a revised version of Catalyst in the Crucible, and then write an essay explaining how I revised it. Probably not too many people would be interested in that, though. What I finally do will depend on what happens with the first two stories in the series, as I'll explain in a moment.

Although I need a break from the Lennon's Line saga, I'm not taking a break from writing. I have some other, shorter works in progress. One is a fantasy short story about a University of Magic; it's in the revising stage. Another one is a science fiction short story featuring, of all characters, Ollie the AI. (His Uncle Paul is in it too.) This short story is meant to stand on its own and won't be a Beatles fan fiction story. I'm still writing the first draft of that one. I wrote a third short story, another fantasy, last year and have been trying to sell it. I may have a new group of people look at it before I send it out to another market.

If you've been to my Passing the Pen section lately, you may have noticed I added another outside link. This is to the OWW, an online writing workshop dedicated to science fiction, fantasy, and horror writers. I've been a member for over three months and have gotten some very useful comments on my work. In fact, I've posted "Move Over Ms. L." there and soon will start with To Thine Own Self Be True, combined with the first story to form a novel called Lennon's Line. I've been working with several other writers on the workshop, and though they like Lennon's Line, they gave me several suggestions for making the plot more believable and changing some other aspects of the story. (For instance, those of you who read "Move Over Ms. L." on Rooftop Sessions may remember I quoted song lyrics in the Cavern scene. I removed those lyrics to avoid copyright problems, but I was never pleased with the rewrite. One of my reviewers suggested I compose my own song lyrics instead.) Once I've revised Lennon's Line, I'm going to submit it to some small presses and e-book publishers. I've love to find new readers for the novel, and I think that might be a better way to do it than through print-on-demand. At any rate, it should be cheaper. ;) Hopefully, the rewrites will make the story "fresh" enough that my having posted previous versions on the Web won't be a problem. I will be taking the stories down before I send the novel to publishers, though. Please do not save any of my stories to your computer or post them anywhere else; that would be a copyright violation. Don't worry; I'll give advance warning before I pull the stories. If I am able to sell Lennon's Line, I may submit the revised Catalyst in the Crucible to publishers as well.

Once I get some of these smaller projects finished, I can write the final story in this series. It will be called The Key to All Locked Doors. I don't want to give too many hints about it, but it will involve Paul's enigmatic muse Domino, space travel, and alternate universes. Part of it will be set on Jovonne. You'll get to see some old characters and meet some new ones. And I can say no more, except that I'll have to do some research before I can start this story.

And as for what happens after The Key to All Locked Doors? Well, I'm sure I can come up with more story ideas about Jovonne and Paul's ability to manipulate chance, though those stories will be submitted to publishers instead of appearing here. I have ideas for three separate novels I could write, and I still haven't finished the Season Lords trilogy.... So, I can keep writing for a long, long time yet. Whether I sell a story or not, whether or not I make money or win a lot of fans, writing is still an important part of me, something I need to keep doing until I die. May the Muse be with me, please....