Mai's Story. What was it? A little idea, a spin-off from my first ever collaborative story, the Protagonize bus, and yet it's become something so much more. Sure, so it's not my long-term project at the moment and I've never done much with it since abandoning the draft in my computer, but it's got potential.

It was the first time I ever tried to fully invent a new race. Before, I was developing on ideas by other authors, or from legend. But shape-shifters, well, they've been used before, that's true. Not, however, in the way that I used them.

I think it was my first success at making a planet, too. Home -- an unoriginal name, to be sure, but it worked -- was Mai's home planet, and the home planet of Sunny, Olivia, and the Commander. That was another way in which the story was different from anything I'd written before: I didn't make up Sunny OR Olivia OR The Commander, but adopted them from other writers to make them my own. Credit must go to the Protagonists who invented them. A year on, I can't even remember.

But I've never really worked all that hard on the background work of a story, and so that's what this is. My notes. "A Way Home" -- referring, of course, to the planet. Here I'll outline the ins and outs of the species and the geography of the planet; here I'll join up fragments of plot and try desperately to make it make some sort of sense. It will be hard work. I think I can do it.

Let me know if anything doesn't make sense or the continuity sucks. Suggestions also welcome.

RATE THIS CHAPTER!

Author guidance for This exercise

Mai's Story

I've never really worked all that hard on the background work of a story, and so that's what this is. My notes. "A Way Home" -- referring, of course, to the planet. Here I'll outline the ins and outs of the species and the geography of the planet; here I'll join up fragments of plot and try desperately to make it make some sort of sense. It will be hard work. I think I can do it.

Let me know if anything doesn't make sense or the continuity sucks. Suggestions also welcome.

updated Sep 16 '10 by delorfinde