I love actually writing a story...but the development and planning stage is slightly annoying. I really need to start structuring that part better so that I don't get lost in everything I need to do. Set up a checklist for everything I need to do, and then do them, but do them each in succession. That's the way I like to do things, orderly, but with some leeway so I can deviate from the plan if inspiration suddenly strikes me.

I really want this new world to work. I want it to have depth, I want readers to like the characters and identify with them, and I want it to succeed. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I'll be able to post the story on dA for awhile, since I want to shop it around a bit. Maybe I'll be able to post some excerpts from some of the backstory I'm writing on here. Like how they eventually published "The Silmarillion", even though that was basically just backstory that Tolkien had written to make the world he was writing about seem clearer in his mind.

That's what I aspire to, creating a world that my characters actually live in, a vibrant world with history and culture. So many of my past stories have flat characters, you don't see much development during the story, and they tend to just be strong right off the bat. I don't want that. I want characters that you watch grow, they may start out weak, but eventually they find out that there was power within them all along. That's the message I want to send.

Everyone has strength within them. You may think you're weak, but deep down, there's a hero. Inside all of us lies the potential for being a hero. It's just buried deeper down inside some than others.