Sometimes while you are writing a novel, you can find yourself traveling down a new path without quite knowing where it will lead. Such is the case with the Chapter One rewrite I am now in the middle of. I know what major plot points I need to hit to move my story towards its conclusion, but I don’t always know which road I will take and how many curves it will have in getting there. As in life, sometimes writing is in the journey and not just the destination.
I originally thought that Joshua lived in his parents house in the suburbs, but now I realize that he is more cosmopolitan, living in a upscale apartment in the city. I also expored his taste in ethnic foods and his tendancy to drink expensive beer and stay up at oddhours of the night.
Then a new character burst into the story with important news that I had originally intended to introduce in a later chapter. A girl friend, not a lover but a friend – Dancia is her name for now, a fellow Geek and someone who is an important person in Joshua’s life, but with whome he is not romantically involved with.
I felt Joshua should have friends and at least one of them should be female. Dancia is a Geek Girl who seems to come in and out of Joshua’s apartment at will and use his computers, game boxes and couch at her own discretion.
I don’t know much about her yet, but I do know she will help him discover the mystery and there is only the bare minimum of sexual tension between them.
A girl next door friend who may have a seceret crush on Joshua, but never acts on it for fear of loosing him as a friend.