Boffo Babble part unus:

Okay, so there were originally only two main characters, and a villain. It was just Opal, Tyler, and Dei, and really, it was originally just Opal and Tyler, and I was just trying to write a sappy self-instertion romance. ... Well, it still feels like a sappy self-instertion romance at times, actually. It's funny, because Opal is the hardest character for me to write simply because she was originally a self-instertion. (And I'm getting the oddest feeling that I'm spelling that wrong...) I was fourteen, I thought I was in love, and I had a brand new notebook (and a giant purple troll, but that's definitely a story for another day); I sat down in my comfy pampasan chair and began writing.

I think it's rather interesting that the story also started off as a blatant copy of a story by another amateur writer whose work I respect a great deal...in the first, handwritten chapter in that birthday notebook, it's so blindingly obvious where I got the idea from that it hurts. But then, thankfully, Dei walked onto the scene and began acting psychotic- thus making it a slightly less blatant rip off of a different story by that same well-respected writer. *thwaps forehead* D'oi. By the time I'd started posting Boffo online, it had thankfully grown to have a bit of it's own personality...but unfortunately, the original stigma of unoriginality remained.

The story isn't original at all- of course, few things are, anymore, but Birds of a Feather is definitely less original than most things out there. It started out as a copy of something- yes, I was conciously doing that. As it progressed I began unconsciously taking ideas from other places, other books and authors...Reading the fourth book in the Crown of Stars quintology by Kate Elliot made me cringe, because I took quite a few of my plot devices from those books...Opal and Tyler, in particular. Read the books and you'll see what I mean- and I didn't even realize I was doing it.

I wasn't really paying attention to much of anything when I was writing the story, actually. I'd just sit and write, and whatever ended up on the paper ended up on the paper- the plot didn't reveal itself to me until some time around January of last year, which in terms of the story was during chapter 6- what is now chapter 8. Immediately after that are about twenty pages filled with writing that have all been crossed out save for one dream sequence that I stuck into chapter 7. Since I am now in that gray area of crossed out pages writing-wise, the final version will be my fourth try at writing this part of the story. I still don't like how it's turning out.

The universe that the story takes place in is a bit different from your typical good vs. evil, trying to save the world kinda shizbang. None of my characters (except maybe Jance and the Shades) are actually evil...Lucifer is just a trixter, and Catenus/Albion is doing it all for revenge, and love. As Dei's Shade says, "They only call themselves angels..." and as Queen Lilith will eventually say "We may be creatures of pure darkness, but that does not make us evil." The problem with this is that there's a lot of stuff to explain, like what the angels and demons really are, and why Radueriel plays such a significant part in ...everything. Jubal, too, and Tyler especially.

It's strange, how a simple, sappy romance story that was started because I was being a silly little ditz (I've grown a great deal more cynical in regards to romance in general because of my stupid actions at fourteen) turned into a giant "save the world or die trying" sort of thing. Emphasis on the "or die trying" part, I think.
Hey, here's something to think about if you ever read the damn thing- go over each of the characters, go through each chapter, and find Jesus. That's right- it's kinda like Where's Waldo, only not. Go on, figure out which one's a Christ-character.

...

That's right! They all are. And thus it is possible to see why this story frustrates me so damn much. My characters are all whiny martyrs- or worse, they're alcoholic whiny martyrs, or demonic whiny martyrs, or angelic whiny martyrs...*sigh* Too many whiny voices in my head. Is it any wonder why I'm so weird?