One of my current WIPs is Marsip, the sequel to the novel Aza that I self-published in 2014 (I’m also working on a dystopian novel called Two Kinds of Darkness).

Marsip is set several years after Aza and hopefully tells the story of how Marsip discovers who he is and what he truly wants. In true fantasy style, these questions happen during a battle for power, waged by the Teransellens–a tribe from the mountains. And let’s not forget Elaine, the stubborn lord’s daughter who unintentionally causes a handful of problems, most of which affect Marsip.

I can’t remember when I decided to start writing Marsip. I think it came from the fact that Aza had her story, and Marsip wanted one too. In Aza, Marsip was the supporting character–Aza’s only friend. He was serious, thoughtful, and responsible. Basically, everything Aza was not.

However, when the spotlight was trained on Marsip, that all dissolved. Aza and Marsip have sort of switched places in their relationship, and I’m still not sure if this is a good thing.

When it comes to this novel, I’m not sure of much.

I wrote the first draft during NaNoWriMo, 2012. It was another of my NaNo novels without punctuation (note to all writers out there: don’t write over 30,000 words of a novel without punctuation. You will regret it later!). This, and the fact that it got a bit too crazy (I spent over ten thousand words just inventing bizzare creatures), was why I decided to re-write it.

Four years later and I’m still re-writing. I’m about halfway now, and the story has changed a lot from the first draft. It has the same beginning and overriding idea, but there are a lot of interesting subplots. So many interesting subplots, in fact, that I’m not looking forward to the editing process.

Granted, I’ve taken a lot of breaks in these four years. Partly because Marsip was suffering from the invisible middle syndrome, and partly because my characters were irritating me. It’s humorous in retrospect: Marsip used to be the boy who knew exactly what he wanted and where he belonged. Several years later (from the time Aza is set in), and all I could think was “Come on Marsip, just get a life already!” Now I realize I was disregarding the fact that few characters actually have a life in the first half of a book.

Things are going slightly better now. Marsip has begun his journey to ‘better person’; I sort of know how I want the middle to go, and I’m feeling inspired.

Granted, I just wrote this post instead of a chapter, but still– all writing is beneficial (I think).