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Finally I can return to writing, with many new things ready to post.
Due to technical issues, I've been unable to access the website for some time. I am glad to say I'm back and able to post some of the new things I've been very eager to get out.
I've been itching to get back to updating and editing A Wildfire. With so many ideas, so much to say, so much to add, it's bound to make the book much more riveting to read. I've previously felt the book was missing a lot, though I am yet to actually read it back without going into editing overdrive, so I haven't been able to comprehend what that is. It's been a little over a year since I began writing A Wildfire, meaning I have in a sense "rushed" the story. I always say that half the fun of A Wildfire is that only myself and limited others know how much is truth and how much is fiction. However, after having some time to step away from the writing process, I've been able to reflect and establish that the essence I am missing is more reality.
For those who don't know, A Wildfire began as the true story. An influential person in my life would often recite one of his favourite lines to me. Over and over he'd tell me, "one day we'll sell our story to Hollywood". Both being creatives of a sort, we both wrote short stories about this sort of "intensity" between us. He always hated mine. Possibly as much as I loathe his now. It sparked my love of the characters I ended up created. It was strange how even when we wrote separately, we always wrote with the same themes. I was fire, he was ice. I always put it down to his nickname for me and my common insult for him. While he'd nicknamed me Wildfire, I'd often called him an "ice-cold prick" or something to that effect.
In the writing process, I decided to write about a part of our history that I had - for many years - chosen to ignore. I did it in a way that was not an exact retelling, rather a combination of what happened and what may have happened had I made a different choice at a separate time in life. It was in that moment the book took off from me. It began writing itself and the main characters evolved into something separate from ourselves. I found it relieving, almost as though it gave me more control over my life.
A year on, many epiphanies, sleepless nights and tears later, I've come to accept I never needed to regain control. The past is not in the drivers seat and if I truly want to claim control, I shouldn't run from it, rather embrace it. This has sparked a deep desire in me to revamp much of the Wildfire story with much more fact than fiction, including very private and confronting scenes I'd rather choose to ignore but need to face. As with my draft, it will be at my discretion to disclose how much is fact and how much is fiction, which should leave you, my audience, guessing!