My son and I were talking this morning about the creative process. He's writing code for a game right now and started the conversation with a sleepy yawn because the code floating around in his head had kept him up all night, even after he went to bed.
The characters from my books do the same thing to me.
If you've ever had an idea floating around in your head, nagging at you to do something, then you know how most authors feel when they're conjuring stories. Sometimes, the ideas coalesce into something beautiful (or terrible, depending on the genre) right away, but other times, it takes a long while for an idea to germinate, sprout, and finally take root.
This is what happened with the world of the People. The original idea for Amazons cursed to immortality occurred to me a couple of years ago. I sat on it, did some research (Herodotus, anyone?), checked to see if someone else was using the idea, and pretty much let it sit until last November. Yes, I kept gathering ideas, and every once in a while I'd even pull out my notes and go over them again, but that was pretty much it.
Up to that point, all I had was a series of ideas. It wasn't until I stumbled across information on the Sandby borg dig in Sweden that the world of the People did more than germinate in my head. I started asking a series of What if? questions: What if archaeologists discovered a burial made during a period when the dead were immolated? What if that burial contained the remains of a Daughter who held an important artifact? What if the People had an institute to investigate such things, and what if it was led by one of the People's greatest warriors?
A lot of those what ifs were supported by further research that, in turn, led to more questions. From there, the ideas snowballed until they reached critical mass and I stumbled unknowingly over the creative block that had previously kept me from actually finishing an entire first draft of a novel.
This process continues to build as each novel in the series is developed and written. I've had a couple of people ask me when the second story (Light's Bane) will be released, and I'm not certain anyone understands why I'm waiting to publish it when it's essentially finished. The reason is that I want to give myself time to fully develop the world of the People, to insert the many ideas that are circling in my head into the stories in order to do justice to the series and to give readers the best experience possible.
I also never know where a story will lead. As it happens, while developing the third story (The Enemy Within), I discovered some fascinating aspects of the world of the People that needed to be seeded into Book 2 and will have ramifications for books four through seven. I'm also developing tangential aspects of the world that will be expressed in shorter stories and a stand alone novel (working title: Redemption) that takes place concurrently with Book 3 (the two plots are slightly intertwined).
The most amazing thing about this is that the flow of ideas is often overwhelming, in a really good way. It's like a dam has burst in my brain, releasing bits and pieces of this world that have been waiting for me to find and use them. And while I'm sometimes physically tired from the lack of sleep (it really does keep me up at night) and emotionally drained from writing, my creative energy is at an all-time high. It's such a rush!
If you haven't done so yet, please take the time to explore the Daughters of the People website. I've added some Author's Notes, character snippets, and a few other things I thought might be interesting. I'll keep adding material while the series is being published, and hope to make it a really interesting window into this fascinating fictional world.