30 x 30: #17 – Finish Pride and Prejudice fan-fiction novel

So the beauty about this being my 30×30 list is that I get to determine when an item is done. As I said at the beginning of the month, when I posted about NaNoWriMo I planned on calling this one complete even if I didn’t finish it completely. And I am going to call Finish my Pride and Prejudice fan-fiction novel my 28th completed list item leaving my tattoo and finishing Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal as my final two items!

The novel originally started out as a joint project between my friend Caroline and I, but due to creative differences, AKA she wanted to write an erotica novel and I wanted to write a romance novel, it became my project. The book is tentatively titled Darcy’s Dream and I’ve reached my unofficial goal of 25,000 words. I originally thought it would be enough for the story, a novella if you will, but I’m a little over what I think is halfway through the story I want to tell. If you zoom in on the picture you can get a brief preview of it but keep in mind it hasn’t been edited and only two people have read it since I wrote that portion a few months ago! (I haven’t even gone back to read it yet.)

I’ve read about authors who say as you write characters go their own way and the story changes without you having control over it and I never thought that was true, but it really is! I had a full outline of where the story would go and it is mostly moving in that direction but the body is completely different from where I thought it would be. I’ve also found that characters evolve on their own. The back story you thought would work all of a sudden disappears and they’re standing in your head completely formed with a history and everything. I thought those authors were crazy, but they’re not.

As the story evolves I’m realizing my original character names might not work as well as I hoped, but that is still to be determined. The basic synopsis of the story is that it’s a modern “gay” retelling of Pride and Prejudice with flashbacks to the wedding night of Elizabeth and Darcy in the original which modern-day Will dreams. As many of the characters share modernized names with the original characters (William Darcy, Liz Benét, Ibby Wick, Charlie Bing, etc.) it’s difficult for them to refer to the original story and not know that it’s weird all their names are so similar to it. I guess that’s a suspension of disbelief thing, but I’ll make that call later in the day.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed writing the story so far and am proud that I’ve made it as far as I have. I will most definitely finish the story, even if no one else reads it, because it’s now in my head and it’s going to bug me until I get it all out. Hopefully the new year or my holiday vacation (when I’m less focused on finishing my list) will bring the time I need to sit and write. As I said above the story is constantly writing itself in my head and I just need to get it on paper (oh colloquialisms) and I’ll be satisfied. I’m actually looking forward to the editing and revising process as I’m sure I can expand and cut portions and make final decisions on names and whether or not I’ll actually let people other than my ego-boosting friends read it 🙂