I’m not big on change. In fact, for the most part, I’m against it. Change is difficult. It is uncertain. It is uncomfortable.
And change is utterly inevitable.
For the last year or so, I’ve been working on my newest novel, Mutant. I decided when I started the book that I was going to create a blue print, a story map and I was going to follow it. I was not going to meander through the story, picking up ideas as I went along. I did create a story map and I tried very hard to follow it, but the map kept changing. My story kept trying to change. Worse yet, my life went through a series of massive and highly uncomfortable changes. I kept trying to pull everything back into place—to prod the world into its proper order, but the world will not prod and life moves on. And Mutant moved with it. So the Rhe were born. Walrus faced people from Rhe whose entire culture and existence is built on the theory that change is bad and must be avoided.
And who saves the Rhe from destruction by the evil Metalics? Miranda Baxter, of course, and her mutant friend, Riley Fortune, formerly known as R-4. And how do they save the Rhe? I don’t know yet…but I’m sure it will have something to do with the human ability to accept and adapt to change.
Life’s uncomfortable and inevitable changes provide rich fodder for fiction. When my mom was told she had a terminable form of cancer, I gave Miranda terminal cancer, and then I cured her. It didn’t help Mom much, but it helped me deal with a difficult time, and it enriched the story.
So for the moment I am giving up on the ludicrous notion that I am in complete control of my stories or in complete control of my life.